Infection
by ForevermoreAlizabeth
Summary: So what if she thought it was wrong? He was her brother, he was all she ever had, and anything that made him happy she'd do. They were a team, and she could ignore the nagging guilt in her mind if it mean making his dreams a reality... She used to believe all of this. So why did it just take one white-blood cell to change everything?
1. Chapter 1

_-I own nothing to do with Osmosis Jones, the only thing that belongs to me is the OC. Any and all similarities with any other fanfictions is completely coincidental. Please enjoy and review!-_

_~Ann's p.o.v~_

It was warm, wrapped around me and comforting. Not the usual intense heat, like a fire raging in front of me, or a festering wound. There was no sizzle or sting to it, just a peasant, soothing warmth. I didn't want to leave it, not something so familiar and safe as this, but an insistent shake of my shoulder slowly pulled me from sleep. I let out a quiet groan of protest, wanting to go back to my dreams, but the hand persisted. It was gentle as it shook me, a light pressure on my shoulder, almost maternal with it's tenderness.

A low, throaty chuckle rumbled in the chest I had my head laid upon, a familiar sound as I slowly opened my eyes.

"There's my little girl."A voice came from above me, a voice I loved that set my few nerves at ease, a voice that I could listen to all day and never tire of it. Unique, rumbling with a special deepness to it. I lightly nuzzled the side of my face into a black trench coat, sitting in this man's lap with my knees curled up.

"Look alive now, the clock's ticking."The man said with a suave, excited tone. I nodded, slowly coming to my senses and pulling out of my coma-like sleep, looking around me. We were surrouned in a thin membrane of hardened eggwhite, keeping the gloopy, chunky exterior from touching us for now. Thin cracks appeared in the membrane, a movement in the capsul-like egg telling me that something, probably a saliva boat, had picked us up.

"Where are we?"I asked curiously, looking upwards at the man whose lap I sat on. He leaned back, his skin a vibrant, 'infectious' red, his smile splitting his face as white teeth flashed, the excitement written on his features bringing a light to my heart, exciting me as his, pun untintended, contagious smile lightened my otherwise dark mood.

His face was sharp, with pointed cheekbones and a razor-sharp-looking chin, barely a nose peaking on his smooth face. Above prominent cheekbones sat two, golden-colored eyes, narrowed and anticipated. He reached up, his left hand flashing a long, deadly, violet-colored claw that streached far beyond his other fingers, brushing it through violet, thick dreadlocks.

I paused a moment, looking at him, reminding myself of just how similar we were, of how truly connected we were. Same deep, red skin tone, with the same small, peaked nose. My hair mimicked his, in slightly thinner dreadlocks pulled back into a pony tail on my head, a few closer-together ones forming bangs slightly over my right eye, violet. There was no mistaking our resemblence.

Even the things that set us apart meshed us together, fitting like puzzle pieces without the rest of the puzzle. My size, considerably smaller than his and yet just as powerful, able to fit into spaces he couldn't and hide where it was impossible for him. My eyes, oddly enough, a 'vibrant blue', as he often described them, 'my little gems'.

But the main thing, the way I knew we were meant to fight together, what made our team inseperable, my hands. Though they missed the long, leathal-looking claw that his had, both of my hands had small but impossibly-sharp nails, also a deep violet when unlit. When lit, they glowed a bright, luminescent orange, such as his claw did, able to cut through steel and more. But that wasn't their true purpose, no. The purpose wasn't as much the ability to cut, as it was to infect. To be a pathogen of heat, of unbelievable fire.

That was what made us unstoppable. That was what made us almost picture-images of the other...almost. I rather did not like thinking about the only thing that truly set us apart, the sole reason on my own head and in my very heart that I tried to smother through the years. The only thing that followed me, that I couldn't destroy with a pinprick. A cursing morality. A guilt that my older brother lacked, a sense of right and wrong.

Unfortunatly, what my brother found oh so right, I found horribly wrong. I didn't want to, had adapted to most things over the years, but it was inevitable every single time I stood by, watching a body burn from the inside out. I felt a pain, a guilt. I didn't want to harm the people we had... But he was my big brother. My everything. He was all that I had, all that I ever had had. And he loved this, this completed him. So, regardless of nagging guilt and a painful concience, I would do all I could in my power to accomplish his steadily-growing goals.

"45-year-old, ate an egg of a zoo floor."He mused almost rhythmically, and I made a small face, slowly shifting off his lap as I felt the egg make a stopping motion, slowly adjusting my black jeans and black tanktop, the knee-length, black trenchcoat barely making a sound as my brother brushed it lightly, standing on his own with an almost similar dress: An ankle-length tench coat, black pants, combat boots, and a grey turtle neck underneath.

"Sometimes I wonder how humans have survived this long."I said quietly in my small, reserved voice. I didn't mind when my tone came off a quiet, almost shy and a bit odd. I didn't do the talking in the team, my purpose was to protect my brother with my very life and carry out anything he needed done. A soft, gentle hand ran through my hair as he chuckled again.

"Don't worry, on the rate we're goin' they'll be good as Ebola."He chuckled, and I nodded in confirmation, though the thought did disturbe me, shoving down the guilt once more. Muffled voices came from outside, a snap of a rubber glove as some old-sounding, gruff voice mused,

"Hey, cells vote man. Cells vote."

"Game time."He whispered, the membrane shattering silently as some sort of trumpet-like instrument was shoved inside, me dodging out of its way as his left hand took a hold of it. I paused, looking up uncertainly at my older brother.

And, almost instantly, the guilt and fear subsided. That was the wonderful thing about him, he could set me at ease with anything he did. The smooth, confident smile on his face, rivaled by none, was enough to silently and stoicly stand and frown, ready to assist him in his latest, greatest goal.

I reached forward, seeing a pale blue hand break through the egg, surrounded by a white membrane. I took the hand and, before the man could utter so much as a grunt, my big brother shoved the trumpet instrument onto the man's hand, a quick and confused scream uttered out as he was sucked right back through his own machine with a sick sucking noise.

The instrument fell through the cracked egg, snot-like goop falling in front of the hold as another younger, more timid voice shook out.

"A-Artie?...Y-you there buddy- What the..."He whispered, finding his friend as I raised my hand, arm diagnal across my face. I felt a new heat in my arm, slowly growing in intensity as it made its way to my fingertips. For others, the heat would be too much to bear. For me, it was a theriputic thrum of warmth. The pinprick-sharp nails on my hands lit up, only my right arm quickly slashing in front of us.

Five pencil-straight, long, infectious-looking, red gashes erupted on the surface of the egg, seeing the glow of the fire within spread quickly, the egg vibrating as a mild adrenaline filled my body. A scream was heard outside as the thrumming grew loud, and finally exploding. I didn't so much as flinch as we dropped to the ground, sticky and gloopy muck completely covering out bodies.

I didn't move quickly, calming myself as we slowly straightened out. I sensed another presence in front of us, a small whimpering sounding as I felt the muck slop clean off of me, giving my head a slow and steady shake as the last of the egg reminants fell in a disgusting pile at our feet. I stood in front of my brother, slightly turned in as I gave the man in front of us a calm, steady glare.

I ignored the fear in his eyes for my own good as my brother's voice rolled out, an orange glow in the corner of my eye,

"Careful, I'm contageous." There was a smile in his voice as he moved forward, the man in front of us dropping his own trumpet-like instrument, visibly shaking and giving a fear-idled smile, holding up his hands in defense and an attempt at mercy.

If there was one thing I knew about my brother, it was that he was never taught mercy.

His claw reached out, barely touching the man's shoulder in a movement so light and delicate that, like most of the gentle touches he gave me, people would be shocked came from such a strong, destructive being.

"..O-ow..."The man squeaked out, his eyes rolling up a bit as his face slacked, the fire numbing. Like a firework after it's initial boom, the flame exploded, spreading like wildfire over the man's body. I heard his screams, the pain in his voice barely blocked by my now-instictive defenses, heard the popping and knew the red plasma slowly seeping and exploding from his body.

I just didn't see it, turning and walking next to my brother as he drug a claw along the inner wall of the saliva boat, leaving a thin, crooked, glowing line of heat in its wake. As he walked, he hummed a smooth rhythm, and I almost closed my eyes to listen to it. I loved it, his voice when he hummed or sang, something so soulful, so raw, so calming about it that it, above almost all, was my favorite thing about him.

Something else broke through my lullabye-like phase, my eyes flickering over to see a small green germ, no bigger than my foot, jumping from foot to foot and surface to surface to avoide the spreading heat, flames licking up the sides of the boat and flickering in the dark mouth. For a second, a fleeting second, our eyes met. His widened, terrified as he saw he was caught...

And for my own, reasons, to relieve what little guilt I could, I kept my own promise. I looked away from him, acting as if I'd never seen him, never killing anything that didn't absolutely need to be killed.

"Sweetie, hand me my shades will ya?"He asked, and I nodded, reaching into my own pocket as I saw him swinging something from his claw. It was thin, black, with small purple orbs radiating from the inside. His chain, the one thing that made me horribly uneasy, the one thing I couldn't bare to look at for long periods of time. Almost like the souls of our victims, forever taunting me.

I handed him the shades, avoiding the chain as I said quietly,

"Here, Thrax." He took them, flicking the sides open and grinning a wide, Cheshire-grin.

"Time to turn up the heat in here!"He exclaimed excitedly, and I moved lightly, his arm wrapping around me protectively as the saliva boat lurched forward, falling down the throat at a rapid, stomach-churning pace. "Hold on, baby!"He shouted happily, me turning and latching my arms around his torso, his arm releasing me and holding onto the sides of his trench coat.

Almost like bat wings, we took off, glinding through the steady inhale and exhale of oxygen and carbon dioxide, flying unseen in the shadows of this man's body.

"Where are we going, Thrax?"I asked my older brother, Thrax dipping quickly as police sirens began to sound below us.

"To get some recruits, baby. Wanna keep you as far away from the dirty work as possible, afterall."He said calmly and happily, me nodding and breathing in the scent of ashes and heat, relaxing for just a moment.

The next 48 hours, I knew, held nothing but chaos.

_~Osmosis Jones~_

"Uh huh!"I exclaimed outloud, walking my stuff across the airport as diverse and sometimes freaky-lookin' passengers arrived on the delicacies of Frank's diet. "My own case! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"I walked with pride, swinging my arms as I felt an imporance in my chest, on my very first case! It was about time Chief decided to place some responsibility on yours truly!

Right now it might just be a sore throat, but give me two weeks and I'll be fighting the biggest, baddest germs to grace this side of-!

"...Well well..."I mused, a sweet piece of eye-candy making me stop in my tracks. I stood behind a giant call board, watching as a purple-ish blood cell moved in all the right ways, a hand on her hip and the phone to her ear, pulling down a short-and-sweet, purple skirt. I felt a smile creep onto my face, deciding that today wouldn't just be the day I cracked my first case, but the day I finally broke through sweet Leah's icy wall.

I'd been aching to take her out for months, maybe years now! Every time I might have gotten shot down, but not today! Nu-uh, not after she got to see the master detective at work. After this case, she'll be Jones-in' for some Osmosis! But first I had to spiff myself up, give her the full monty.

I reached down and streached my abdomen, puffing out my chest and then pulling my chin down into a suave, dimple-chinned look. Oh yeah, here I come!

"Well, well, well!"I exclaimed, walking up to the Mayor's assistant just as she flipped closed her phone, her face turning to me and giving me a look at her fine features. I leaned down, hands forming a type of camera as I took in more of her, earning an amused look in her own eyes. Hey, I could work with amused! "What do we got here? Someone's been working out! Leah you lookin' fine."I laid it on, seeing her roll her eyes and brush a hand through her short, silky-looking hair.

She crossed her arms and asked in a velvet-smooth voice,

"Jones, did they have to assign you to this job?" Ouch, strike number one! Leah was playin' hardball today. I kept smiling, not one to give up on a girl like Leah, and brushed back my hair.

"Spit, wasn't my idea!"I said smoothly, "But now I'm startin' ta like it!" I moved, taking one small, smooth hand in mine and gently pulling her close, spying the beginning of a smile on her lips that only encouraged me more. "Baby when are you and I gonna hook up? I know this nice spot right behind the eye, has the perfect view."I mused, Leah girl pulling away and crossing her arms, rolling her eyes despite the smile on her face.

"C'mon, how 'bout a little rendevous, between me-and-you?"I offered, moving closer again, closer to her face as I smoothed out a finishing line she couldn't refuse, "Do ya hear what I'm sayin? Do ya hear what I'm sayin'? Cuz I've been sayin' it a long time."

Still, despite my best efforts, she pulled away and turned her back to me, an icy chill coming from her, like always.

"Jones, what in the world makes you think I'd go out with you?"She asked with her own smooth tone, walking away. Still not giving up, I exclaimed in my own defense,

"Whatchu talkin' 'bout girl? I'm a legend! Girls be linin' up to divide with me!" Leah turned, a lopsided smirk on her fine face with an eyebrow cocked, confidence that no one could help but find sexy.

"Really? Because you look like the kind of cell that mostly divides with himself."She shot back, and my enhanced features immediatly fell, not that I needed them to woo the ladies. Fighting back the momentary put-down, I held up my hands in mock-cold and exclaimed,

"Wooo! Who turned down the heat in here? Somebody pay the bill!" Leah looked just about to shoot back at me, but a female announcer over the intercom rang through the busy stomachport.

"Now arriving: Cold Pill Drixenol with some Milk."She said monotonously, and I followed Leah as she immediatly turned and walked up to the terminal. Massive, see-through windows shone as white milk slapped up against the sides, the massive red-and-yellow capsul slamming into the end of the terminal as the loading dock streached out to it.

"Wow, that's big!"Leah exclaimed, me crossing my arms bitterly at what was supposed to be my 'partner'.

"Please, 99% of that's just sugar."I mummbled, Leah rolling her eyes in my perifrial vision.

"Yeah? And 99% of you's just stupid."She retorted, and I held up my hands in defense against the ice crystals forming on her nucleus.

"Ohh! You want my jacket girl, that nucleus must be cooold."I said smoothly, looking forward at the crowd surrounding the door that the pill would come out of. Suddenly, like blowing up a balloon, the tube of the loading dock puffed up worse than Frank in poison ivy, a massive cloud of bright-red smoke exploding from the terminal door. It quickly fogged up the entire terminal, a smell making me scrunch up my nose.

"What is that cherry stank?!"I exclaimed, as Leah and I made our way up to meet the pill as the doors opened. They slid apart, the fog clearing immediatly as the pill emerged from the darkened hall.

A big fella, with a capsul-like head that was red on top and yellow on bottom, a massive chest with a yellow + in the center. One hand was normal, with a red glove, but the other was some heavy-lookin' machine, possibly a gun that spun as he held the arm up, face serious as those around us gasped and 'ahh'ed.

"Agent Drixo-Benzo-Metaphetramine."He announced in a too-serious, too-polite voice. Damn, someone needs a stamp for their signature! He held up a hand, tone lightening as he said in rapid succesion: "Drixomine! The brand that eases your coughs and sneezes. Warning, do not exceed reccomended dosage. If symptoms persist contact physicion, may cause drowsiness. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery, pregant women should not handle broken capsuls."

I smiled, nodding as I said,

"I feel better already!"Clearly this guy knew what to do, which would make the job that much easier, me look that much better, and get Leah that much closer to some Osmosis!

"You can call me Drix!"He exclaimed happily in a deep voice, floating over to us as I noticed a steady stream of air and bubbles coming from his be-hind. I'd be sure to keep him far from my baby, and when I said baby, I mean my smooth ride! Don't need any of that cherry crap stinking up the interior. Leah walked forward to greet him, saying,

"Welcome to the City of Frank."

"I'd like to examine your irritated areas."He said seriously, and I held up my hands playfully.

"Wo! Not on the first date, Drips!"I exclaimed, and he gave me a narrow-eyed frown.

"It's Drix."

"I know that!"I defended airily, and he raised an eyebrow.

"No, you said 'Drips', with a 'p'."He retorted, and I waved a hand at him carelessly.

"Whatever!"I mused, Leah tugging on my sleeve and making me face her, her face angry and frustrated and still oh-so-cute.

"Jones, this ain't workin' out! I'm gonna call Chief and ask him to assign someone else."She said stiffly and angrily, pulling out her phone. My gut sank immediatly and I grabbed her, making her face me as I resorted to pleading, seeing all of my hopes for this going down the bowels.

"Wait,"I said sadly, "Hold up Leah, I need this. Just give me a shot, I'll be good. I promise."I begged, palms together and scrunching up my face into the best puppy-dog eyes I could give. Slowly, her scowl fell and she rolled her eyes, snapping shut the phone and placing in her shoulder-purse.

"Fine Jones, but not screw ups!"She scolded, frownin, "Ya dig?" I almost jumped for joy, spinning to Drips as I mused,

"Yeah yeah, I promise everything's gonna be fine!" I took Drix's arm and turned, leading the confused pill out of the main section as I threw over my shoulder, "Not as fine as you, but fine." Bam, that'll keep her thinkin'. Now to just get this stick-in-the mud to make me look as good as I was and things would finally start goin' my way.

After all, what's the worst that could happen with a sore throat?


	2. Curious White Lies

_-I own nothing to do with Osmosis Jones, the only thing that belongs to me is the OC. Any and all similarities with any other fanfictions is completely coincidental. Please enjoy and review!-_

_~Ann's p.o.v~_

White blood cells below were scurrying and panicking, frantically spraying the section of inflamed throat tissue with some liquid from their hoses. I wondered, for a moment, if they had any idea what this inflamed throat was going to lead to. But of course they didn't, how could they? They were merely doing an everyday job, with the only odd exception being the unusual crash of the saliva boat we'd just crashed.

I sat on a swollen gland, looking down on the scene with a bird's-eye view of the scene below me, watching with mild and innocent curiosity. I was supposed to be on watch for anything that might disrupt the plan while Thrax was off calling some contacts, trying to find out where the sickest germs infested the City of Frank. We'd flown here after crashing the boat, not much happening as I began to grow bored.

I reached down and began to draw crooked, wavy images in the gland with an un-lit nail, barely scratching the tissue enough to cause a major issue. I hummed as I did this, swinging my legs to and froe as I waited for Thrax to come back. Two stars and a lopsided smiley face later, something from below caught my attention.

A massive streak of white-blue liquid arched across the space in the throat I'd been watching, my attention immediatly turning to the odd source that didn't seem to be from any inflamation fighter's hose. I leaned over a bit, seeing what appeared to be a massive, red-and-yellow pill agent. From what looked to be a gun on the end of the pill's arm, an ice-like substance flew, freezing everything it touched and coating it in a thin layer of ice.

I 'hm'ed, mildly impressed with the pill's massive attack against the inflamation in the throat, covering three times the space that the white-blood cells could have in twice the time. The gun seemed to be much more effective than their hoses, and for a moment I wondered if I should have told Thrax about this. The moment passed, however, when I reasoned that it was nothing more than a pill agent, and would be here only for 12 hours and could fight nothing more than a simple sore throat.

Again, if he didn't pose an immediate threat to Thrax, I saw no need to put someone I didn't even know in danger. I watched as he aimed the gun across himself, a white-blood cell panicking and dodging out of the way just in time to avoide being frozen, his hose icing over in mid-air. I placed a hand on my mouth, suddenly stifiling a rare giggle as the pill merrily went along his way, smiling and almost freezing even more cells to the spot.

I couldn't help but immediatly, though I didn't know the man, hope that he didn't fall into our path in the next 12 hours he would be here. Maybe it was because he seemed so...happy-go-lucky, with how he was smiling and bouncing along as he took care of Frank's throat, or how he managed to get me to giggle for the first time in a few weeks. Either way, I'd hate to have to harm someone so genuinly happy.

"Saliva boat, huh? That's unusual."I heard a voice below, amoungst the shouts and cheers of the white blood cells below. I looked down, surprised to see a stray blood cell below me, walking along the purple walls near the gland. The second I saw him, my interest was unusually perked. I didn't know what it was, but something about this man seemed special, curious almost. He was a white blood cell, but not one of the ones fighting the inflimation. No older than 25, he seemed almost to be a detective with how he was observing everything, brow furrowed under a small tuft of blue hair that blended in with his skin, a black bit of scruff along the bottom of his chin.

He had what I assumed was a hansome face, not that I tended to pay attention to things like that. He wore a white t-shirt, with a jacket over top that had a black body and brown sleeves, loose brown pants and black shoes. All together he seemed quite ordinary, so I didn't understand the sudden interest I seemed to take in him. Possibly it was his straying from the pack, or the curious and suspicious look in his eyes, but something about the air around him seemed different, unique almost.

It drew me in, and suddenly I found myself standing from my spot on the swollen gland and drawing over to a hole in the purple muscle next to me, the man below entering into the cave-like catacomb of tissues and muscle within. I looked back before I entered, making sure I wasn't seen and that Thrax wouldn't be back before I was.

Casting doubts and confusion aside, I followed my odd curiosity into the caves and entered a dim darkness, hopping silently from tissue to tissue until I finally caught sight of the man. I crouched down, watching behind different pillars of tissue as he stopped, spying something on the wall that I had to peek my head out of my hiding spot to get a better look at.

Probably shrapnel embedded in the tissue from the saliva boat, there were orange, glowing marks on the wall, the man shining a flashlight on it as he slowly reached a finger towards the spot. I stiffened, breath catching as I silently hoped he wouldn't touch it, knowing the pain it would put him through if he came in direct contact with-

"Ah! Not my suades!"The man exclaimed in a smooth voice, stumbling away from the spot as some orange ectoplasm stuck to his shoes, peeling off as he flailed backwards fast enough to not burn a hole in the bottoms. I breathed out a sigh of relief, moving quickly through the passages and trying to get a better view of him on the other side of the wall of orange heat. Once I did, hiding in front of him to his right, I saw that he had found something else to occupy his interest.

He brushed off some dust and, from what I could see within the green liquid within the case he shone his flashlight on, it was the container that held captive the white-blood cell from just an hour ago. Once again, I felt myself stiffen. How it had gotten in here wasn't the issue, it was that this man's curiosity had led him to it. Suddenly I was glad that my own curiousness had fourced me to follow this man, while at the same time wishing I hadn't.

They were two small oddities within this case, things that others wouldn't have noticed nor looked for. That was what Thrax had wanted, for people to see these minor, everyday incidents like an inflamed throat and overlook the curious circumstances, like the crashed saliva boat and missing white blood cells. But this man had not only found two things we'd hoped no one would notice, he was observing them and, having observed an odd feeling from this man, I felt as if he were the kind of cell to take these things and look into them further than other cells would.

Inwardly, I hoped he would just brush it off like the others, that he wouldn't be a problem and, in the future, I wouldn't have to do him harm. Yet something inside me said that this man was far from the others, though how I wasn't sure.

"What the Frank?"He whispered, and just as he did a hollow 'thud' sounded further down the tunnel. I barely had time to flatten myself against the wall of tissue behind me before the man's flashlight shot directly to the spot near me where the sound had come from, hearing his breath become labored and frightened.

I panted myself, nucleus pounding as I waited for him to pass by the opening I was near. As he did, I saw he was shaking, clearly frightened as he held up a black gun with bright orange holsters, hands jittering as he moved slowly and alone in a darkened cave. Curious myself to see what the noise was, I crept silently amoung the tunnels and opening, dodging every now and again as the man shot his flashlight to and froe at even the slightest noise.

Eventually he stopped, in a large clearing with a small hole in the side that he seemed particularly interested in, me behind him and hiding behind a large rock-like object as he approached the hole, waiting...

"Gnah!"He exclaimed, jumping back with a scream as something green lunged and attatched to his face. The creature began shouting and screaming, it's limbs and multiple little protrusions ringing a bell in my mind. It was the small, green germ from before, the one I'd let live, shaking and speaking in a foreign language. The man took the germ and flung it from his face, pointing the flashlight at the terrified little thing as it shook like a uvula during a coughing fit, pressing its back to a tissue mound and shouting,

"We're all dead hombre! They'll kill us!"

"No."I whispered to myself, feeling my gut drop as the man raised an eyebrow, pointing the gun at the germ.

"Slow down man, speak English! We ain't on telemundo here."He exclaimed calmly, finally dropping the gun to his side and kneeling down at the hysteric germ. I gripped the tissue in front of me hard, cursing myself for my weak guilt and morals, knowing that if I'd just gotten rid of that germ when I had the chance then this wouldn't be happening.

"Muerto Rojo man, they're coming! I saw them!"The germ exclaimed in an accent, holding out it's alien-like hands as more eyeballs popped out like a pufferfish, me gasping. Muerto Rojo, the Red Death, the name we'd made for ourselves in the bodies we'd destroyed, amoungst the germs we'd used to held Thrax's goals. If this cop found out what it meant, then that meant he was in deep trouble.

"Hey!"He shouted, breaking me from my thoughts as, suddenly, a familiar icy blast of liquid shot across the clearing and fourced the man to lunge out of the way, the germ screaming right before a line of ice hit him smack in the face, freezing him solid. I barely managed to jump behind a new line of tissue before a blast hit me, the pill humming merrily as he went nonchalantly into the clearing.

"Hey! Did you see that?"The man asked, and I pressed my body to the tissue, holding my breath and body tense. Please don't see me, please don't see me...

"See what?"The pill asked in a deep voice, the sound of the gun ceasing.

"There, I could have sworn I saw...nah, nevermind."He brushed off, and I exhaled a breath. It was time to leave, scolding myself for ever having come in the first place and putting the entire thing in jeapordy, as well as these men's lives. Quickly, and without incident, I jumped up higher and sprinted through the rest of the tunnels, barely making it out to the opening before running face-first into someone.

"Hey there, cool your heels baby!"I heard Thrax's voice and immediatly calmed down, looking up and seeing him snapping shut a black cell-phone, claw barely touching it before the entire thing incinerated into a pile of ash on the ground. I stopped panting, seeing his curious and mildly concerned gaze as he asked, placing his clawed hand under my chin, "Now why did big daddy Thrax have to come lookin' for you, hm? Where'd my special girl run off to, yo?"

I didn't know why, like a lot of things that had happened in the last few, short minuets, but without thinking I blurted out,

"I just wanted to look through these caves, I thought I heard something." I paused a moment, surprised at how quickly I'd lied to him. Yes, I'd done it in the past, little white lies about this or that, things that wouldn't impact anything in the long-run. But this...this wasn't a little lie. That cop had found enough evidence to know that more than just a saliva boat crashing had gone down here, and who knew how much he was willing to look into the case? This could unravel everything, if even one thing went wrong...

So why did I lie? And why didn't I feel bad about it?...Something about that man, something was different, and it unnerved me. Nothing should make me feel like this, nothing should put this dream in jeapordy, and inwardly I hoped I'd never have to deal with that man ever again. Thrax seemed to buy into it, a smile slowly spreading on his face as he gently moved his hand, brushing my bangs from my eyes and saying,

"Curious little thing, aren't you? Let's move, Ann girl, I've got some hookups about a sick group of bad germs up in the Left Pit sweat glands. I wanna go see if they're game." I nodded, moving and holding onto his torso as we took off again, out of the throat and downwards, leaving the inflamed throat and the odd police detective behind us.

-Sweat Glands, Left Pit, 9:30am-

The pugnant stench didn't bother me, nor did the heat that would be intense to others, just a mild breeze to me. Beside me, Thrax walked, the smoke in front of us blocking out everything but the black sillouhetts of a gang of germs, all shapes and sizes, all clustered around one fat, booger-looking sillouhette of what I assumed was their leader.

Thrax swung the chain cooly, a confidence radiating off of him as I stoicly looked forward, serious and alert in case any of these germs wanted to try anything. He was humming, voice echoing off the walls of the sweat gland as I listened calmly, watching as the germs immediatly became aware of our presence. They turned, their figures immediatly coming into view as I walked right beside Thrax, the center leader a fat, blob of a germ with a towel around his non-existent waist and over his flat head.

The others, most notibly a tall germ with a light green streak up his center, and another more built germ, all had confused and hostile faces, not that either Thrax or I cared.

"So,"Thrax mused, moving the chain along his claw as I kept my eyes on the germs, "This is where the scum of Frank comes to fester."

"Hey, you lost pal?"A gruff, Jersey-accented voice asked from a fat germ, "This is a private sweat gland, now beat it!"He shouted, cracking his knuckles, me tensing up. Thrax placed a hand lightly on my shoulder, the other playing absentmindedly with the chain.

"I'm lookin' for volunteers, yo."Thrax mused in a smooth, serious tone, looking around the gland calmly, "Some nasty germs who want in on a big score." We were standing a few feet from the leader now, a few of the germs eyeing me curiously and with some sort of amusement and resentment. The chain rattled as Thrax moved his hand with his words, catching the attention of a few germs and making a nervous look flash in their eyes.

The fat leader rubbed a hand on his third chin, gold rings decorating the fingers as he said in a gruff, smoke-filled voice,

"Yo Red, we ain't interested in no racket. Take your little hustle someplace else!"He commanded, the other germs suddenly growing serious and cracking their knuckles. I tensed more, keeping my face calm as Thrax's hand squeezed my shoulder almost unnoticably.

"Oh baby, this ain't about no hustle,"Thrax argued nonchalantly, "This is about the baddest illness any a' y'all have ever seen."

"Oh, look who thinks he's the Ebola virus!"The leader mocked, and I paused, knowing exactly how much of a trigger those words had been. Thrax's hand left my shoulder, passing me as I kept close behind him, feeling his immediate anger fill up the room as his tone got angry, his presence the intimidating cowl that shook grown germs to their core.

"Ebola?"He asked, saying it like a curse word, me remembering exactly what kind of relationship he'd had with 'Ebola', a bad taste in my own mouth about the cocky, insistent virus I'd met awhile back. "Let me tell you something about 'Ebola', baby,"Thrax threatened, voice suddenly shouting and hostile, "Ebola is a case of DANDRUFF, compared to me!"

He shoved a few germs as he moved, the leader suddenly standing as I became acutely aware of our surroundings, knowing this wasn't going as smooth as planned, but still no where near out of our control. The leader got right in Thrax's face, my frown deepening as he said,

"Alright pal, you're outta here. Bruiser, bury him in a blackhead!" A germ next to the leader cracked his knuckles, me standing next to Thrax and casting the germ a glare, that he returned with an excited smirk. "By the time we're done with you, it'll take six steaming wash cloths and a swedish facial to get you out!"The leader shouted, Thrax observing his claw-like nails with apathy, suddenly smirking and turning away.

"Hm, sounds like a gas baby, bring it on."He mused excitedly, me turning and following him as, from behind us, a grunt came. Before anyone could even think, Thrax's arm flew above my head and caught a fist aimed right at me, the germ's face falling in shock as Thrax shook his head and bent his hand down, bending the germ's wrist as he said,

"Uh, uh, uh."

Without another word, I jumped, side-kicking the germ away and sending him flying into the wall next to the leader.

"Bruiser!"He shouted in anger, "What are you, a sissy Mary? She's a little girl, get her!" As he spoke, I saw the orange glow of Thrax's claw dip into a pool of water, the smoke immediatly filling up the room and making everything nearly invisible. I moved, now on full offense as I spied more sillouhetts, bringing my nails down and slicing through one of the germs that was trying to get to Thrax, spin-kicking another as Thrax took down a few of his own before spinning.

I stepped clean out of the way, a germ grabbing my shoulder as I reached back and took his arm in my hand. Our eyes connected for a second and I sent him an icy glare, his face turning to one of fear as I used what most referred to as 'supernatural strength', truly just the results of fighting my entire life, and flinging the massive germ to hard that he slammed through the glandwall oppisite me.

A scream pulled my attention back, seeing the leader now in slabs, slowly slurping down the drain as he exclaimed,

"That was nothin'! You think you're touch-woah!"He was finally consumed, sliding down into oblivion as I moved back to Thrax's side, calmly glaring at the few remaining germs. There were three, one fat, the tall and skinny one with the green stripe, and a dopey-looking one. The taller removed a cloth from his head and, with a nervous tone, asked,

"So..what kinda sickness you got in mind...boss?"

Thrax gave a toothy grin of victory, a satified feeling filling me as I brushed some green goo from my shoulder as Thrax gave his answer:

"Deadly."


	3. A Little Favor

_-I own nothing to do with Osmosis Jones, only the OC belongs to me. Feel free to review, it makes me happy ;) Also, Thrax is named after 'Anthrax', obviously, but while Anthrax was a bacteria they refer to Thrax as a virus, and therefore I'll do the same, just to clear anything up for those science-buffs out there. I'd also like to thank those who have reviewed so far, you are wonderful people and I thank you so much! -_

_~Osmosis Jones~_

"Yo Drix, you ever hear about somethin' called the 'Red Death'?"I asked, sliding back into the car that the giant pill was streachin' out, him shaking his head silently. I sighed, giving him a glare as I pressed the sterio back on, zooming out of the donut parking lot as the road rolled beneath us, thinking back on that weird-looking germ and what it said right before the dufus sitting next to me iced him!

I could have sworn I saw something else, too, besides that creepy orange stuff and whatever was in that little pack thing. I only caught a glance of it, seeing a black trench coat and what might have been just a real bad rash, or that sick germ had deep red skin! It was all just a blur, but there was no way I'd missed it!

"Osmosis, something bothering you?"Drix asked, and I sighed. Yeah, you, ya giant greater-than-thou rich, college boy!

"Just thinkin' about that cave. I swear, I saw somethin' down there, and it didn't look like no germ I've ever seen!"I exclaimed, already hearing his sarcasm before he said it.

"Must have just been the fumes from the inflamation. Now let's get to the nasal passages, I'm already running behind on blah blah blah...blah blah...blah blah..."I zoned out halfway through this speil, thinking instead about what was really going on in this twisted case, because my Osmosis senses were tingling, and tingling big time.

_~Ann~_

He caught me in his arms as I jumped down through the seared rip in the ceiling, Thrax setting me carefully down as he turned and walked up to the sole maintenence man. Below us, sounds of men fighting pollen pods rang out, the germs we'd recruited waiting outside the door behind us. As Thrax walked forward, the maintenence white blood cell turned and, upon seeing Thrax, had barely enough time to gasp before a bright orange claw was brought down upon the man.

I looked away, trying to focus on the giant, yellow-tinted window as the sound of cytoplasm exploding and smacking all over the control panel sounded out. Fighting down guilt like it was a habit, I turned as Thrax walked away from me, bringing his still-lit claw up and tearing it down the wall, the rip quickly streaching as the fire ate it up until there was a massive gash, showing the confused and mildly surprised germs.

Thrax stepped aside, voice snapping as he commanded,

"Now...get to work!" The germs quickly filed in, nodding once to me as they passed after being told less than loosly to not try anything with me, anything at all. A large, round germ walked in last, crossing his arms and saying in a dopy voice,

"So this is your big plan? A runny nose, a sore throat? People are just gonna think we're a-"

Thrax shot forward, hand gripping the now-terrified germ's collar and bringing his face close, glaring in frustration as I sensed his patience wearing thin.

"A common cold! And, until I make my move, that's exactly what I want them to think!"He threw the man away, his gold/yellow eyes wide and then narrow again, seething as the germ scurried over to the control panels with the others. I walked up to him, brushing my fingers down the back of his arm and trying to sooth him.

It was at these moments, when if anything went wrong it was all over, that he tended to be the most on-edge. To my touch he turned, clawed left hand brushing along the side of my face and running through my ponytail of dreadlocks, quickly placing a kiss on my head as he said in a calmer tone,

"Go keep watch, baby. Let me know if there's anything suspicious goin' down."

"Besides us?"I offered lightly, and finally earned a small smile on his face, a chuckle that relaxed me as he gently pushed my head back and ushered me to the window. I turned, walking up a flight of stairs and moving to the sill, the others below me working as Thrax began to bark out orders.

The moment I sat on the sill, I froze. There, down on the dam made of solid cartalig, was a familiar white blood cell and a giant pill.

"What are they doing here?"I whispered with dread in my chest, looking back quickly to make sure no one was paying attention before turning back to the two. They were talking, and if I leaned my head in a little closer I could make out their words.

"Hey, look!"The pill exclaimed, seeing a pollen pod floating up, trying to touch it as the white blood cell quickly jumped up and stopped him.

"Hey, stop that man! Don't you know this is a pollen pod? Frank's majorly allergic to these things!"He scolded, taking the pod and pulling at a spot, sucking in all of the little appendages and trying to tie it as I watched, thinking about I'd lied to Thrax to save this guy's neck without even knowing him, and now here he was right back in danger.

He must have a habit of that...and I must have a habit of wanting to save him, because I had to fight down every fiber of my being to not shout out for him to get his tail out of there before Thrax or one of the others saw him. What was it about these two that made me so bent on saving them? Maybe it was just that there was something...special, about them. Special, unique, something I couldn't place about how they worked so diligently, about the man's attitude.

"I didn't know Frank had allergies."The pill mused curiously, the man saying scoldingly,

"'Course ya didn't! No pill knows what goes on in this city-woah!"He shouted, as the pollen pod flew from his arms and up into the nasal cavity. There was a still moment, a silenced moment where I watched, with increasing curiosity, as the man remained calm.

"Now what?"The pill asked nervously, and the white blood cell exclaimed,

"In the immortal words of James Brown: Get Down!" I actually found myself stifling a smile at that, watching as the man threw himself to the floor of the top of the dam, the pill still floating on what appeared to be bubbles as the gust quickly began to rattle the window. I watched, rapt with a sudden...almost light feeling in my chest, as the pill was thrown against the wall and the man thrown against him, the two comically stuck together as the sneeze shook the entire cavity.

"What was that?"I almost jumped at Thrax's voice, looking back as he climbed the stairs with another germ.

"A sneeze..."I paused, realizing I was unable to lie to Thrax twice, as I mused, "There's a cop down there, and a pill." He walked up, standing next to where I sat and placing a hand on my back absentmindedly, watching as the pill and the blood cell immediatly began arguing after standing up.

"Want me to take care of 'em?"The germ asked, and I had to pretend to streach my neck to cover up the sudden tremor that went through me. What on Frank was wrong with me? I didn't know these two, so why was I so uptight about their safety?

"No,"Thrax said, as if it were obvious, then turned and shouted, "Open all the pressure valves! They're about to blow the scene."He mused calmly, and I bit the inside of my mouth to try and stifle down the sudden tightness in my chest. I found myself silently hoping that those two would make it out...

"Get out of there! Got to the Zit, we've gotta round up a few more sick germs for the next phase of the plan."Thrax ordered harshly, the germs quickly scattering out of the room as he turned and tore an opening in the window. I stood, hopping through it as Thrax followed me calmly, the entire area shaking as a flood of mucus erupted on the other side of the dam. I spied the pill franticly spraying the cracks in the dam, trying to seal it up with more of that icy substance.

And an idea hit me. An idea so startling, so odd, and so against everything I'd ever taught myself to do that I felt a horrible feeling of guilt twisting inside of my nucleus. An idea that, if I acted upon it, wouldn't that be...betraying Thrax?...No, no of course not! I would never do something like that, he was my big brother. This was just to possibly aid these two in not drowning, these two who couldn't really do anything to hinder our plans, right? These two who, even if they tried to confront us, I wouldn't do anything when Thrax took them down. Not one thing.

This was just one little favor to relieve this nagging feeling in my chest. Afterwards I'd never see them again... I ran through my list of excuses, sighing inwardly.

"Shades, doll."Thrax mused, and I nodded, reaching in my pocket and then handing him the shades, which he took and calmly slid on. The man below us turned, seeing the germ speed off in a car and drawing his gun. Slowly, he looked up, me turning and facing my body to Thrax as he prepared to leave, looking down just as, for the first time, I made eye contact with the white blood cell.

The moment went completely silent, almost as if everything else stilled around us. Some sort of tingle ran down my spin, breath stopping as I felt my eyes widen just a bit, something sparking up inside of me, as if...as if somehow, this man did...something to me, something I didn't quite understand. A silent moment where his own eyes widened, pausing and mouthing something that, above the roar of the mucus, sounded like 'holy Frank'.

And then the moment ended, Thrax reaching his claw up and kissing it lightly, holding it out in almost a greeting to the man before wrapping his coat around me and, swiftly, taking off.

"H-hey!"The man shouted below us, and I looked up quickly, seeing Thrax preoccupied, too preoccupied to notice me as I lit one claw and looked down at the man as we flew near a wall. He watched me, confused, as I frowned at him. How frustrating this man was to disrupt my already unstable peace of mind.

I drug a nail quickly across a precipiece on the side of the nose, the cartilage immediatly falling down and landing amoungst the mucus, as a sort of life-raft. I watched, the man looking from it to me, face falling in confusion for a second. I quickly looked away, wrapping the arm back around Thrax as we flew away, feeling the man's eyes still on me.

"Time to get down to the real buisiness, baby."Thrax mused happily, and I nodded, knowing the plan like the back of my hand. We would go to the Zit and hold a meeting for any germ interested, explain how we were to go to the hypothalamus gland in the brain and remove a bead. Afterwards, Frank city would go up in flames in a matter of hours, Thrax and me ditching out to watch from an outside view as, finally, Thrax got his medical-book record.

This was what we were here for, and I promised myself I'd remember that from now on...

_~Osmosis Jones~_

I couldn't get them out of my head, the image burned into my mind as I played the events over and over again. That bad-lookin' dude in the black coat with the red skin and dreads, and that damn glowing claw! There was no doubt in my mind that he was behind all of this, and that my previous suspicion that this case was a hell of a lot more than a cold was beyond right! He didn't look like no germ I'd ever seen...

...And neither did she. That girl, who I was sure was what I saw in the cave, was just..something else. I couldn't quite place it, but there was just something about her that I couldn't shake!

"Man, I'm serious, she was something else!"I exclaimed, walking through the halls of Cerebellum Hall to where the mayor wanted to see us, where I'd tell him that this was a hell of a lot worse than a cold.

"Osmosis, I don't know if you know this, but your over-attraction to anything of the female species should probably stop when it comes to possible viral terrorists."Drix mused like a mother, and I gave him an incredolous look. He thought I was _attracted _ to the girl? I mean, yeah, she was easy on the eyes, but still!

"Nah man! I'm talkin' 'bout how she acted! She saved us man, sending that giant hunk a cartilage down to help us float in that mucusy mess!"I exclaimed, thinking of her looking me right in the eye, the unreadable expression on her face as she drug a glowing, orange nail across the wall and...saved us.

"Why? Why would she do something like that? I mean...I just don't get it!"I exclaimed, looking up at Drix as he brushed me off.

"Then don't think about it. Clearly thinking is something difficult for you." Oh no he didn't. Oh no. He didn't! I chased after him as he walked through a door, into a room full of media and the short, tubby, panicky-lookin' mayor who, upon seeing us, quickly kicked the weel-chair ridden red-blood cell kid away and made his way over to us.

"Congradulations boys, excellent work in the nose today!"The mayor greeted in a cheesy tone, only grabbing Drix and pulling him into a photoshoot, flashing a toothy grin to the quickly-snapping photographers. I rolled my eyes, seeing how ridiculous Drix looked as he flexed and posed for the cameras. Some special agent he was, we were supposed to be tellin' the mayor about those virusy-lookin' two!

Deciding to take things into my own hands, I squeezed around Drix and leaned down to his stubby height, saying a bit worriedly,

"Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, um, excuse me sir, but I think we have a problem." He took my hand, shaking it and laughing as fake as I'd ever heard, letting me finish before taking said hand and yanking me down to his eye-level with it, his expression immediatly changing to one of strained enthusiasm, talking through clenched teeth.

"What are you talking about, Jones?"He demanded, Chief ushering the media away immediatly after seeing the scene.

"I think whatever's in the sinuses is a lot more than a common cold."I explained, his face falling into a glare as I did.

"Sir,"Drix said, a frown on his dopey-lookin' face, "Don't listen to Jones. His diagnostic skills are remedial at best!"He snapped, and I leaned over the mayor, temper finally breaking with this 'goody-no-shoes-I'm-so-smart' jackpill!

"You the one who iced the key witness to a viral attack!"I accused angrily, getting up in his cherry-scented asprin.

"That was an accident!"He defended, and I scoffed.

"Yeah, the kind of accident only a cherry-flavored dipstick like yourself could have!"I retorted, and he threw his hands up in exasperation, the mayor slowly backing away amist our verbal battle.

"Oh! I am so SICK of you! That's it, I can't work with him!"He shouted, and I spun around , crossing my arms.

"You can't work with me? I can't work with YOU!"I shouted back, huffing as Leah suddenly appeared and shoved us apart. Leave it to Leah to hear me out, because the next thing she asked was,

"Jones, what's this virus thing you're talkin' about?" I spun around and, begging that they'd listen to me for once, when this whole thing could really be a danger,

"I'm talkin' about the virus that torched the throat! That virus that just caused those half-inch snot crusts I was just surfin'!"

"Those snot-crusts were caused by the sneeze, and the sneeze was caused by YOU!"Drix intervened, spinning around and poking his over-sized finger into my chest, feeling my cytoplasm boil in anger as Leah quickly moved near the mayor.

"Oh yeah?!"I exclaimed, "Then why did I see that viral-lookin' mother and the infectious-lookin' girl fleein' the scene of the crime?!" Drix finally silenced, pulling back with his eyebrows raised as it finally pieced together in that tiny little mind of his, me still seething and glaring. Leah, bless her fine, fine nucleus, spoke up in my behalf.

"Sir, maybe we should put the city on full-alert. You know, liquids, bed rest, just to be safe."She insisted, but the mayor, still with a baby-pout on his face, shook his head and stamped out,

"No, we will do no such thing! I'm not going to postpone our trip just because the white blood cell with the worst record in Frank says something!" He reached up, grabbing a hand-ful of my collar and pulling me down, poking a finger in my face as he threatened, to my surprise, "Listen, you keep your opinions in that mushy little head of yours, or you'll find yourself in our next nosebleed!"

He stuck his fingers in my nose for added effect, if that added effect was 'ew' and 'ack'! He pulled away, walking over to his desk as I stood there, defeated and dumbstruck that he wasn't gonna listen to me about something this serious! This could mean seriously bad news for Frank! For all of us!

"Son, I'm sorry about all of this!"Mayor said, pulling Drix to his desk as he slid his glasses on and sat down, "Why don't I find you a better, more...capable, officer to work with on this case." I froze, feeling my nucleus fall to my feet. Off the case? Just because I reported a deadly-looking virus duo? I..I couldn't believe it. My very first case, and I mess it up by doin' something right!

I sighed, shaking my head even as Leah gave me an apologetic look. This was just my luck, messin' up just like I did all those years ago when I'd made Frank throw up to get rid of that nasty-lookin' virus on that clam he ate. The same incident that led me right back on the bottom, where apparently I was gonna stay.

"Uh...sir...eh, if it's all the same to you..."I heard Drix saying, and looked up, seeing him giving me a sideways look. He wasn't... "I think I'll stay with Jones."

I straightened up, confused and...and thankful, but more confused than anything else. This giant pill was gonna...gonna save my neck, even after everything I'd gotten him into and said to him? I looked at him, the mayor looking up apathetic and mildly confused, for a second actually seeing a new side of the guy. Maybe, maybe he wasn't so bad afterall?

"Suit yourself."The mayor shrugged, turning in his chair as Drix nodded and, floating past me, smiled.

"C'mon...partner."He said, and I waited only one second before grinning back and catching up to him. All the way back to the car I was thinking of a way to thank him, only being good with words when it came to the ladies, not apologies. Once we climbed in, me at the wheel and not even mentioning how he streached my ride, I cruised us down the highway and said, trying to sound cool,

"Ya know ya didn't have to do that. The last thing I need is your sympathy."

"This isn't about sympathy,"Drix corrected me, leaning down to fit and still having to have his gun-arm out of the car, "I was sent into this body to make it feel better, so if these alleged viruses have anything to do with causing it harm, I must pursue it!"He said with gusto.

"Yeah, yeah,"I retorted, feeling a smile creep onto my face, "Whatever."

"Hey Jones, what did the Mayor mean when he said you had a...'record'."Drix asked, and I sighed, weaving in and out of traffic. That day, when I messed everything up by doing what I thought was right. Maybe it was just his recent act of kindness that did it, but I felt I could trust him enough to tell my story to. Besides, it'd get my mind off that girl, even if just for a little while, even if her face was still floating in the back of my membrane...


	4. Can't Protect an Idiot

_-I own nothing to do with Osmosis Jones, only the OC! Also, I just wanted to say that I'm colorblind, and therefor if I get any colors wrong for those die-hard Osmosis Jones fans, I'm sorry and I'll correct it as soon as possible! Thank you and I love you guys! p.s. I didn't know the name of the flu-shot guy, so I made it up. If you know please let me know!-_

_~Ann~_

I swung my feet, one of Thrax's arms around me and on my knee as he sat sideways in his chair, the other germs sitting around us and waiting until we left for the Zit, where the real plan would start.

"Hey boss, looks like your plan worked!"One of the germs exclaimed, sliding a newspaper over out way. Thrax stopped it, his smile splitting his face as he mused,

"That's right, I've got this city right where I want it!" I looked down, reading the headline that said, 'hero stops cold' with a picture of a happy pill and a frowning white blood cell, the same ones I'd just saved for the second time. I couldn't fight the relief that filled me at their actual survival, listening as a germ asked,

"So what about the cop and the pill?"

Thrax sat straight, flipping back his dreads and running a hand through them, the claw hand lighting up as he reached forward,

"Let's just say, if they give us any problems..."He purred, twirling the finger as he sang in a smooth, soulful voice, making me relax despite his words, "Fiire! Bau bau bau!" The claw drug up the picture, making bright veins appear as the paper burst into flames. There was no reason I should worry now. They were heroes, they would leave the case well enough alone now.

...Oh please, just leave this case the hell alone.

_~Osmosis Jones~_

"Chicken pox fight."I mused tiredly, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms, standing in a dirty alley in Frank's abused liver, watching as the ex-flu virus ran his enthusiastic, yet illegal, money-making 'buisiness'.

"Hey!"Drix exclaimed, holding up his gun-hand, "That's a virus! We should arrest him!" I quickly moved in front of the trigger-happy Drix, saying quickly before he iced _another _ source,

"Woah woah woah! No man, that used to be a virus! Now he's on our side, just chill. He came over on a flu shot." He slowly lowered his hand, looking suspiciously over at the guy and musing,

"That's funny, he doesn't look 'fluish'."

I rolled my eyes again and slipped on some shades, walking strongly away as I said over my shoulder,

"Why don't you just stay here and watch the meistro work." Finallly he pipped down, me walking over to the gang of off-the-rail buisinessmen and whipping out my badge, flashing it as I said,

"Hey boys, don't you know chicken-pox fights are against the law?"

They all turned and, upon seeing my athorotative figure, hauled ectoplasm out of there. The flu-shot, Sniff, panicked as he watched his costomers flee with their chickens and their money, facing me angrily and shouting in his pimp-like motif,

"Yo junior, you just cost me twenty!"

"Money ain't gonna be a problem if you don't tell me what I wanna know about the sinuses!"I exclaimed back at him, playing a little 'tough cop' on a guy like him. He looked around to make sure no one was looking, then shouted back,

"Hey! I was injected into this body on influenza only!"I crossed my arms, frowning at his three, column-organized eyes, as he flashed a hand sign and defended, "And this don't sound like 'influenza' to me!" Before he could go on, I reached forward and grabbed the purple collar of his suit, pulling him to me as I threatened, taking off my glasses for effect,

"I'm sure Johnny strephtacaus and the Melanoma family would be veery interested to hear about your flu-shot work!" Sniff, instead of giving me the desired reaction, shoved me off and dusted off his suit, saying proudly,

"Hey, I'm in the virus-protection-program! You can't get me on that! Wha-hey!"He shouted, as suddenly Drix's gun-arm shot forward and pinned the virus to the garage wall behind him, situated firmly in the sleez-balls' mouth.

"You! I think children's strength should take care of you!"Drix said firmly, as an idea sparked in my head. I smiled, slinking around and exclaiming,

"Ohh, you done done it now!" Drix game me a confused look, but I winked at him, carrying on as Sniff's gace grew increasingly worried and sweaty, "This guy's a phsyco! You had your chances, but it's too late! This guy just got off the florosine, now he's coocoo for cocopuffs! He's going el poyo-loco on your behind!"

Drix, the cool cat he was, played right along and spun his head, giving Sniff the craziest smile I'd seen since the Mayor's dentures broke, Sniff's eyes flying wide open and screaming through the gun in his mouth. Drix pulled out a capsul from the cabinet in his chest, juuuuuuust about to put it in the loading dock of his arm, when Sniff screamed something.

Drix backed off, Sniff falling on his butt as he exclaimed, shaking,

"The two are big-time!" I listened closer, Sniff crawling over to the sewage vent and opening it, half-crawling inside it as he explained, "The guy goes by the name of Thrax! And his little sister, Ann! The two are tough, real dangerous, even the girl! They're holding a meeting in the Zit, it's huge! You can't miss it man!"

I nodded, smiling and knowing exactly where said club was, Sniff dodging head-first into the sewer as he shouted,

"But you didn't hear that from me! You didn't hear that from me!" I turned, Drix floating ahead as I jumped up and cheered.

"Woohoo! Yeah! Next time, I'll be the bad cop!"

"You _are _ a bad cop."Drix threw back, and I paused...

"Yo, who you callin' a bad cop?!" I chased after him, one name rolling through my mind... Ann. So that was her name, huh? Kinda pretty, if I do say so myself. The name! Maybe the girl, but that's beside the point. She was an evil virus...or was she? I mean, she had saved us, but why? Maybe, just maybe, I'd find my answers this afternoon, at The Zit.

_~Ann~_

"Hm, Kidney Rock's playing tonight. I haven't seen them since that teenage boy a few years ago."I mused, hearing the music blast through the wall seperating the night club from the empty meeting room.

"Kids taste in music these days, its sad."Thrax mused teasingly, with no one around and openly ruffling my bangs, showing a sort of affection he chose not to in front of his croonies. I smiled up at him, following him as we walked away from the wall.

"I still like yours better."I mused, earning a chuckle from him as he laid out a map of Frank.

"You still got those tapes? Thought they burned along with that bum in Carolina."Thrax mused lightly, and I smiled, thinking about the few tapes I had of Thrax actually singing. They were things no one else knew about, things no one else ever would know about. Nothing professional, that wasn't really Thrax's scene, just moments of him singing that I cherished because...well, it was him. It was a side of him only I got to see, a raw, emotion side of him.

I still wished I knew the guitar chords to it, never having enough time to learn between bodies and fires.

"Hey, you remember the plan, don't you girl?"Thrax asked with a smile, spreading the map out with his hands at the head of the table. I walked calmly up, pushing up the sleeve of my trench coat as I walked in front of him, his arms on either side of me as I placed an un-lit nail on the map, tracing it up the throat and to the forehead, where we were now.

"We're right here. We get enough people interested, just to use as shields and distractions for tomorrow, when we make our move up to the...the...hypotha...hypothalem...hypothilim..."

"Hypothalimus Gland."Thrax corrected me softly, like an amused teacher. I nodded, tracing my nail to a large red dot on the map.

"We go there, and then take of of the beads. After that, this city goes up in flames, and you've got a name in the medical books."I finished, Thrax's claw dragging across my jaw as he said,

"And _we've _ got a name in the medical books. Me and you baby, we're a team. Unstopable, always have been and always will be." I smiled, nodding, though feeling an unnatural...almost empty feeling somewhere in my chest. Shrugging it off to a lack of sleep, I looked up to see one of the germs opening the door and entering the room.

"Uh, sir, almost everyone's here-"

"Send them in."Thrax interrupted calmly, and the tall germ nodded, turning around and giving a slight hand motion. Thrax took a step back, my face falling back to serious as germs of all sizes and looks filed in, sitting in their own chairs and quickly filling up the table. I stood to Thrax's side as I reached into my pocket and handed him a pointer, like the ones teachers used back when I was really little, when I still went to school.

"Let's get down to buisiness."He said, all eyes on him, a few straying to me. Unlike before, in the sweat gland, these guys knew me. These were the germs who've been around the block a few times, heard our names and knew our reputation. These looks were looks of either respect or, in a few, uneasiness. I ignored them, hands in my coat pocket as I watched Thrax talk.

He began with a minor introduction to what it was exactly they'd all be here for, and that the plan would take place tomorrow with set times. As he did, I noticed a new member walk in silently, barely noticed by anyone as he took a seat at the table to my right. I paused, looking at him once and, when I really thought about it, looking back again.

It couldn't be...there was no way he was this stupid! But there was no denying it. He was even wearing the same clothes! The only change was his pliable cellular dynamics, making his hair longer, body shorter and stumpier with longer legs and one eye, trying to look like a germ and, to be honest, succeeding.

But it was so obviously the cop! I tried to not look at him too hard, tried not to attract attention as I screamed at him in my mind. What an idiot! How could he do something so incredibly...stupid! Did he not know that one mess-up would get him killed? That I couldn't keep saving his cytoplasm?! Hell, he was lucky I even went through the emotional turmoil to do it the first time! Why was he so bent on this case, when the city already thought he was a hero? Why do this and risk his life? What would he gain out of it?

No, I couldn't focus on that. I could only avoid him and hope that this went through calmly, that I could just get through this meeting and if he screwed up, hell, I'd be the first to hit him!

"My plan is simple,"Thrax instructed, me feeling the man's eyes one me as I tried to focus, "Three teams will move through the cranial artery and one through the nasal passage. We are going to the brain baby! And we're gonna steal ourselves one of these." He took the chain and pressed, one of the purple orbs pressing out as I averted my eyes, taking the chance to glance at the cop.

He was giving the bead a suspicious look, suddenly turning to look at me as I flashed my eyes away as quick as possible, feeling an odd sensation in my chest again.

"Now this little sucker comes from a place called, the Hypothalimus Gland-"

"The hippo-hyppo-whatamus?"

If it wouldn't look suspicious, I would have slammed my face into the wall. He was truly membrane-dead! The moron actually CALLED OUT in the center of this thing! Why couldn't he just sit down and shut up?! All eyes turned to him, Thrax glaring as he tapped the pointer in one palm, saying in a measured tone as an image of a brain popped out of the table, the tophalf cut off with a little imatation of the bead in the center of it,

"Hypo-thalimus. Hypothalimus. It controls the temperature for the entire body. We are gonna march in there, and take our prize!"Thrax's voice suddenly rose, the germs around seeming to get excited as Thrax's unavoidable enthusiasm filtered through the room. He held the pointer up, lighting up his claw as he said in a calmer, cooler voice,

"And once we do, our friend Frank is gonna heat up like a side walk on a summer's day." He tapped the end of the pointer, the entire thing instantly incinerating and falling to ash that he lightly kicked with his shoe. He cracked his neck, looking around and musing,

"Now all of this is going down tomorrow bright and early, so I want everyone to be prepared."

"Tonight?!" I literally felt my eye twitch, glad I was now standing behind Thrax so the sudden tensing of my face didn't give anything away, looking almost furiously over at the cop as he dodged behind the chubby germ who'd already been with us, moving his mouth with his finger as he voiced,

"Uh, can't we do this next week? Me and Mad Cow got tickets to Wrestlemania." Wrestlemania wasn't even in this body! I could almost scream, instead almost relaxing when Thrax seemed to ignore the cop and pressed a bead out of the chain, walking around the table as I slowly followed him, eyeing the cop as I slowly passed the corner of the table across from him.

For a moment, we locked eyes, and I gave him a 'shut up and sit down' glare, before turning back to Thrax as he spoke, voice rhythmic but subject...one I'd rather not think on.

"See this little DNA bead here? Comes from a little girl in Riverside California, didn't like to wash her hands."He mused, me fighting to keep my face calm as the guilt from that particular one nearly ate me apart. She was so small, so innocent... "Took me three whole weeks."Thrax mused, downplaying what was a massive feat. He pushed out another bead, listing off,

"And this one, nice lady in Detroit, Mowtown.."He threw the chain and caught it easy, slicing his hand lazily in the air as he said, "Six days, flat." The ones around the table gasped, eyes growing wide as we now rounded the very end of the table, walking closer and closer to the cop, me silently praying to Frank that he wouldn't say anything.

"Then there's this old guy, in Philly. I killed him in 72 hours."He mused, pocketing the chain and draggin a claw along the edge of the table, a firey crater opening up before he removed it, spreading along the table and making the germs jump back from the flames. I followed behind, now just listening to the confidence in Thrax's voice, how he got when he spoke about his dream.

"Yeah, I'm getting better as I go along,"He said, tone dark and excited, moving his shoulders calmly as he walked, "But the problem is I never set a record!"He snapped, making a few germs jump as we passed the cop, me almost sighing with relief as he stayed silent, Thrax's claw behind his back. "That is, until my man Frank! I'm gonna take him down in 48 hours! Get my own chapter in the medical books!"

His eyes lit up, hands moving and chain rattling as he spoke, seeing a truly happy, truly excited Thrax that I wanted to keep. This was why I helped him, to make him happy like this.

"Uh, 'scuse me, excuse me!" This time, both Thrax and I turned at the same exact time, with the same wide-eyed, frustrated look on our faces, though for different reasones. He was talking. Again. Oh, I almost WANTED to hit this boy now! He asked non-chalantly, hand in the air,

"Is there anything a..say...white blood cell could do to unravel this evil plan? Ya now, hypothetically speaking, that is!" Thrax advanced towards him, and I facepalmed while no one was looking. This man was beyond saving, there was no possible way that I could protect him if I wanted to. I followed Thrax, standing to one of the cop's sides while one of Thrax's hands lay over the cop's shoulders. He bent down to the man's ear and asked,

"And just who are you?"

"Who am I?! Who am I?!"The man exclaimed, looking around as he managed out, "I'm...uh...Bad...booty-shakin'...pick-a-nosis! Yeah! That's who I am!"He exclaimed, Thrax rolling his eyes and walking away, musing,

"Never heard of ya." At this point, I was almost upset with Thrax for not immediatly knowing this man was a cop! I quickly walked past him, following Thrax as he just. Kept. Talking.

"That's because you ain't been here long enough!"He exclaimed, me looking back as he flamboyantly waved his arms and announced, "You just ask any a' these sucka's! When it comes to illin', Badbootyshakinpickanosis stands above alll the rest!" He then high-fived a germ's face, which, in the cop's defense, was shaped exactly like a hand.

"Ow, that hurt..."The germ mused out, falling forward and slapping the cop's back. Almost instantly, I rolled my eyes and inwardly cringed. Now he'd done it. When the germ slapped him, he immediatly snapped out of his germ-disguise, right back into his normal cop phase with his badge rolling onto the table.

"Hey! It's a cop!"A germ shouted out, and it took all of my power to not say right back 'oh really? What was your first guess?'. The germs around him yanked him backwards out of his chair, three holding him by his arms as his face went into a panic, Thrax turning and walking towards him, an interested and wicked smirk on his face as I followed him.

Man, I did everything I could for this cop. This was just ridiculous at this point. He was on his own, as much as it oddly hurt me to think that.

"Well well, look at this. An officer of Frank's finest."Thrax mused, hands behind his back as he leaned down to get in the cop's face, which was written with terror and panic, eyes darting around for an escape that I couldn't give him, my own eyes avoiding his as they fell on me. I felt, for a moment, a horrible twisting feeling in my gut, a feeling that I couldn't seem to shove down.

"Someone lay down a towel!"Thrax shouted, claw lighting up as it inched towards the cops face, me cringing and looking away, "This is gonna be meeessyyy-" The wall to our right exploded, cutting Thrax off as the rubble went everywhere and dust rose immediatly, me instantly standing between the wall and Thrax. From the dust, a familiar silouhette appeared, quickly clearing the fog until I saw the giant pill, the gun on his arm cocked and...what appeared to be the frozen germ on his head.

"Attention germs, you are surrouned!"He exclaimed, spinning and immediatly bouncing up and down, "Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh uh-huh surrounded!"He actually sang, and my face fell in pure shock.

"Are they both idiots?"I finally voiced quietly, the cop saying through the choke-hold he was in,

"Yo hammer, you can stop dancing!" The pill stopped, a surprised look on his face as he said quickly,

"Oh, right. My bad."

The cop moved quickly, sliding out from under the germ's arms and kicking backwards, sending both germs flying and spinning, poking another in the eyes as two more flew at him. Thrax moved quickly, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me back as the germs in front of us were thrown away, the cop sliding across the table as the first germs slowly stood up.

"What took ya?!"The cop shouted at the pill, as I spied the germ on his head finally beginning to thaw, shaking violently. He paused, then looked from me to Thrax, who was seething angrily beside me.

"E-Es El Muerto Rojo!"It exclaimed, jumping backwards in fear and scurrying out of the room. Just as he did, the pill's chest opened up and he pulled out what appeared to be a grenade, me taking a step back as the germs in front of us froze, gasping as the pill proclaimed,

"Only for use against the most stubborn cold symptoms!...Darn, childproof caps!" He struggled, unable to fit the small capsul into his gun-hand. I deflated, wondering how they were even alive this long.

"Get him!"Thrax shouted, the germs and me moving forward to get to them. I jumped over the table, dodging a germ thrown backwards as the cop rounded the table and tried to get to Thrax. I jumped down in his way, the pill fighting off another two germs that had his arms in strong holds, a third coming at him with a knife.

The cop looked me in the eye, smiling weakly and holding up his hands.

"Hey there, I just gotta get to that viral-lookin' mother-" My eyes narrowed as I quickly, without hesitation, lunged forward and slugged him right in the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards and messing up his face.

"Oh, baby, why you hit so hard!"He exclaimed delusionally, as I jumped forward again and spun-kicked him so hard he flew across the room, right to where the pill was just fighting off the germs who had holds on him. I watched as, when the cop slid backwards and passed the pill, he snatched the grenade right from his hand.

"Take this!"He shouted, pulling the pin and throwing the grenade right over my head. I paused, only processing that this was very...very bad, about three seconds too late. Dread hit my stomach as my eyes widened, the germs around us gasping and screaming, me frozen in place with nowhere to move in time.

"Ann! Get over here!"I heard Thrax shouting from behind me, but it was too late. Before the words even left his mouth, there was a massive flash of white that enveloped my entire vision, blinding me, right before the coldest gust of wind I'd ever felt slammed into me, an explosion so loud I could have sworn my eardrums burst.

And then, nothing but white. White, cold, and dread.


	5. Unexpected Circumstances

_-I own nothing to do with Osmosis Jones, just the OC(Ann). Sorry for the massive amount of updates yesterday, I just had that kinda mood ya know? Thank you for reading and commenting!-_

___~Ann~_

My entire body hurt, a ripping pain in my side that woke me from unconciousness, making me groan and cringe. But, what was much worse, the cold almost felt like it was killing me. It seeped into my body, feeling like a snuffed-out candle as the heat was stifled, the chilling, snow-like subsance I lay in and that partially covered me feeling basically like poison. I shivered, wrapping an arm around my side as I heard voices.

"Hey! It's you!"Oh no, I knew that voice. I knew that voice! The cop! I quickly pushed myself to my knees, cringing and moving backwards defensively, looking up to see the cop stopping just about a yard and a half from me, half-crouched with a surprised look on his face. I became instantly aware of my situation, for the first time without any idea of where Thrax was, injured, freezing literally to death, and with an enemy very close to me.

I moved, scooting backwards and panting, shivering at the same time, dreadlocks out of their ponytail and laying on my shoulders and one in my face, oppisite side of the bangs.

"Hey now, I'm not gonna hurt you!"He said in a soothing voice, almost like he was talking to an injured animal. But at the moment I was in full-defensive mode, moving away from him and glaring, nucleus pounding and stomach twisting as I tried to think through my frozen, half-concious haze. He held his hands out in a harmless manner, crouching more as his eyes softened a bit.

"Hey, c'mon. Don't be this way...you're hurt, right?"He asked, making me pause a second. Did he...in his voice...did he really care? Genuinly? It sounded like that, and the careful way he was moving, it was almost as if I hadn't just tried to kill him, as if we weren't enemies. But we were, and he knew that! So...

"Here, let me help you. I promise, I wont pull anything, just let me see where you're hurt."He said calmly and carefully, me instinctively moving back as he stepped forward, wondering why he was doing this, what his real motive was, why his voice was so soft...and why it almost calmed me down...and why I was dangerously close to trusting this dope.

"Osmosis! Osmosis, where are- oh my!"The pill rounded the corner of the small, cave-like thing I was crouched in, standing in the opening with the cop slightly inside. The pill's eyes grew wide, holding the gun towards me as I immediatly inched back and glared, holding lit-up nails in front of me in defense as I grit my teeth against the cold and the pain.

"It's Ann! We need to-"

"Woah woah, trigger-happy!"The cop exclaimed, standing in front of his friend and waving his arms, "Stop, she's hurt!" The pill gave him a baffled look, as if he'd just grown a cell wall.

"Hurt? Jones, did you hit your head? She's the enemy! We have to get rid of her!"He exclaimed, my eyes darting around for an exit and finding only a dead end a few feet behind me. I cursed inwardly, wondering where Thrax was, if he was okay, if this cold was hurting him like it was hurting me, a horrible feeling twisting in my gut.

He wasn't dead, I knew that. It would take ten of those grenade things to kill him, but I still worried. But what the cop said next broke me of those thoughts.

"Hey, she saved our necks once, I think we owe her one!" I froze, looking up at the cop with a stunned expression that mirrored the look on the pill's face, the pill's eyes flashing from the cop to me.

"Jones, we could get in serious trouble for this..."He said, trailing off as the cop turned to me, then back to the pill.

"C'mon man, look at her. She's in no condition to do anything to the body right now, and if she saved us she can't be all bad, right? C'mooooooon!"The cop begged, me still shocked that he would even be offering this. What kind of absolute moron offers to help their enemy? This man was a few mitochondria short of a cell. And maybe I'd be more shocked, if I didn't feel like my entire body was slowly being frozen solid, the pain in my side throbbing.

"...Osmosis Jones, if we get caught, I swear I'll have your cytoplasm smeared across that car of yours."The pill sighed, the cop jumped in the air, cheering. I couldn't correctly piece together what happened after that, the entire world around me suddenly lurching to the side and vision blotting to black. I felt my face rub against the biting cold substance, hearing a shout and then footsteps.

"Yo! Drix, get the car, and hurry up! She's freezing!"The cop shouted, and I felt him scoop me up cradle-style. I felt the cold slump off me, my body still bitingly cold as my head fell against a strong chest, some part of it actually warming me up a bit. I should have been furious, terrified, confused, something along those lines. This was my enemy, the one that was trying to stop Thrax's dream!...

And yet, all I could feel was...safe.

_~Osmosis Jones~_

"See? No one even saw us!"I exclaimed, Drix floating to and froe in the apartement bedroom, the doorway open to where the outside door was, against the right wall, deadbolted and chain-locked. I leaned against the nightstand, arms and ankles crossed as, next to me, Ann lay in the bed with the blankets up to her chin.

It was weird, no doubt about it. This kid was definitly my enemy...but I didn't really feel that way. I mean, she'd saved me. And that look she gave me in the meeting, the look where she was obviously trying to tell me to be careful, why would she do that if she were really my enemy? It was confusing, why this girl, the sister of one of the baddest viruses I've ever laid eyes on, would seem almost...good.

And hell, she'd saved us once and tried to save me another time! This seemed like the least I could do to repay the kid. I looked down, seeing her sleeping peacefully in an odd sight. Normally she was stoic, serious-faced or angry, very dangerous-looking girl. Now, though, she seemed peaceful. Almost innocent, if you could use that word for a virus.

Her face was relaxed, red complexion actually smooth and light, quite an attractive shade of red, her lips a brighter red than her skin. Her hair, no longer in a ponytail, was in violet dreadlocks that were slightly splayed around her head on the pillow, her light and delicate features like lightly-prominent cheekbones and a small, button nose all noticable for the first time.

Her eyes were closed, but I'd have to take a pretty hard fall to forget that blue. It was vibrant, bright, almost unnatural and yet worked with how odd she was all together.

"This is such a bad idea, such a bad idea! If the Chief finds out, I can be retained and shipped right back to the University for faulty studies! Oh, why did I ever go along with this?!"Drix exclaimed, tearing my eyes from the girl, an odd feeling in my chest that I chose to ignore. I smiled at the worried pill, saying in a chill voice,

"Relaax man! It ain't that bad, and no one's gonna find out, dig? We'll just keep her here overnight, get her healthy, and then bring her into the station. No problemo." Drix stopped and gave me a look, asking,

"Are you serious Osmosis? Even if no one finds out, when she's healed she could possibly take both of us out! You saw her brother, imagine what she could do!" I waved a hand at him, honestly not believing that my charm wouldn't work on her.

"Please, stop worrying! I've got this all under control!"

"Oh yes, I feel much safer."

"That's the spirit!"

"Jones!"

_~Ann~_

I heard them arguing, slowly coming to all of my senses as I tried to piece together where I was and how I'd gotten here.

"Hey, she's waking up!"I heard, jumping suddenly as I recognized the voice as the cop's, propping up on my elbows and moving away from him, pulling my knees up in a warm bed, relishing the warmth after the horrible chill...wait... That's right, they saved me. And brought me here, wherever this was.

"Hold on now, you can't move too fast! Gonna upset that nasty wound you got."The cop said, sitting on the side of the bed and pointing to my side with a calm, kind smile. I paused a moment, looking from him to the pill, who seemed to be keeping a distance as his gaze measured me up. Slowly, I relaxed, moving and propping myself up against the wall on the side of the bed, facing the cop and the pill with the blankets over my legs, upper-body already back to a normal temperature.

The cop gave a soothing smile, sitting on the edge of the bed in front of me as I instictively inched away, wincing as I felt the wound in my side move. I looked down, realizing my coat was now folded at the end of a blue-sheeted bed, in a blue-and-white colored room with a door that lead to what looked like a living room, a double-bolted door leading presumably outside. I slowly lifted my tank top, seeing a small white bandage on the red skin.

"You got cut by a piece of cartalige during the explosion. It's been properly medicated and bandaged, prohibiting strenuous activity and sudden movements until at least tomorrow morning."The pill recited like a script. I looked up at them, suspicious, thinking. Tomorrow morning? Would they really take care of me that long? And if so, what would they do then? And what about Thrax?

Too many questions for a head that was slowly beginning to ache, instead focusing on the tasks at hand.

"So, we know your name Ann, seems only polite that we introduce ourselves to a lovely lady such as yourself!"The cop said smoothly, and I cocked an eyebrow at him. He placed a hand on his chest and said in a happy-go-lucky, almost amusing voice, "Right here you got the best cop in the Frank City Police departement, descended from a long line of Immunity legends, the biggest, baddest, smoothest, and most handsom white-blood cell this side of the DNA track!"

He slicked his hair back and mused,

"Osmosis Jones, at your service." I barely managed to keep down the smile trying to fource its way onto my face, seeing the cop, Osmosis, raise an eyebrow. "Aww,"He pleaded, "C'mon, not even a smile? A wink? A phone number-"

"Okay, I think that's enough trying to seduce the enemy,"The pill interrupted, making it no easier to look un-amused. He floated up slowly, hesitantly, until he was right next to Osmosis.

"You...you can call me Drix. Excuse my partner here, he's a buffoon."He mused, and Osmosis glared at him.

"Buffoon huh? Who's the one who smells like a cherry's pit?!"He exclaimed, the pill, Drix, gasping and retorting,

"I am cherry 'scented'! It's a delightful scent popular amoungst smaller children and young adults!"

"Your mouth keeps movin', but all I hear is blah blah blah!"Osmosis mocked, moving his hand up and down in a puppet movement. I clenched my jaw, face tight as I tried to avoid laughing. This was ridiculous, these two were just..just...too...

"And your membrane is visible, but I don't see it working!"Drix retorted, Osmosis suddenly lunging forward and tackling him. I watched, dumbstruck as the two began to tussle on the floor, rolling around and shouting. I tried, I tried so damn hard, but eventually I just could hold it in anymore. This was too ridiculous.

I let out a laugh, hand over my mouth as the two immediatly stopped. I instantly calmed down, seeing Osmosis crack a happy smile that, and I tried not to notice, literally lit up his face and, damnit, he did look a bit cute with it. Like a puppy dog kinda cute.

"Hey now, she can laugh! Can she talk too?"He asked happily, sitting back on the edge of the bed as Drix floated up, brushing himself off. I paused a moment, looking at each of them and wondering what Thrax would think in this kind of situation...

But, to be honest, I couldn't imagine Thrax in this situation. Therefore, I did all I could do.

"...I'm Ann."I said quietly, though they already knew. I saw Drix's eyebrows raise, his face actually softening for a moment, as Osmosis went on beaming.

"Well look at that! You don't seem to be too big-and-bad, now do ya?"Osmosis asked, "Even kinda cute for a virus, if I do say so myself."He added smoothly, and I cocked an eyebrow at him, confused. He seemed almost playful, a lot calmer than I expected someone in his situation to be, acting no different than the idiot from just a few hours ago.

"Why are you helping me?"I suddenly heard myself ask defensively, some instictive part of me assuming that these cops had some alternate agenda. I mean, people don't just go around helping their enemies! If they did...well, wouldn't there be no need for enemies? Besides, I'd tried to kill these two, and here they were taking care of me? There had to be something else, some other reason...

Osmosis raised an eyebrow, splaying out his hands as he shrugged, voice softer and more sincere now,

"Hey, you saved us, remember? We had to return the favor!" I paused, slightly stunned at his words. Repaying me? For saving them? I instantly tried to fight down the thought that I'd actually 'saved' them, frowning harshly and pulling back to the wall.

"I didn't 'save' you."I insisted, their eyebrows raising as Drix gave me a suspicious look, "I'd never do anything against Thrax's orders."I tried again, voice a bit quieter, sounding more like I was trying to convince myself than these two. Because...wasn't that what I did? I stopped Thrax from killing these two for a reason even I didn't know, and now look where we were.

They'd infiltrated the Zit, cut down our numbers, and I was currently wounded and in their unexpected care. 'That's what you get for saving moronic strangers' I scolded myself, the silence in the room ending as Osmosis gave me a curious look.

"So what did you do? Shine that deadly-looking claw to file your nails, 'accidentally' sending a chunk of cartalige barraling towards us that just so happened to keep us afloat in that nasty mucusy mess?"He asked incredously, and I paused a second, mind racing a mile a minuet to come up with an excuse for why exactly I did save them...

And all I could think about was that special feeling I got from them. A determined, devil-may-care, amusing..._kind_ feeling about them. A feeling I hadn't gotten from anyone else, any other cop or germ I'd ever dealt with. Something about them was special, and in a moment that I couldn't quite believe I'd saved them because of that, hoping they wouldn't get too involved in the case.

But I couldn't tell them that, could I? So I just shrugged, mummbling quietly,

"...Um...yes." They clearly didn't buy it by the looks on their faces, but thankfully I came up with an immediate new question amounst the hundreds floating in my head, feeling a strange...almost calm between these two. As if I wasn't in danger, which was obviously false. They were cops!

"What are you going to do with me?"I demanded, instinctively running a thumb over one of my nails, their surprised faces only followed by Osmosis holding his hands up to me and smiling slyly,

"Woah there, we just met!" I froze, feeling a heat pooling in my face as my eyes widened at what he insinuated.

"Uh, n-no! That's...that's not what I meant! I mean-"

"Calm down, I'm just pullin' your chain!"Osmosis laughed, waving a hand at me as I raised an eyebrow, curious about his rather...nonchalant attitude, in the face of what I had thought was a serious situation.

"Listen,"He said, reclining backwards so that he lay length-wise in front of me, arms behind his head and feet crossed near the pillow, "Thing is, we just busted the biggest viral-attempt I've ever seen! So, if you just confess, I don't see a reason to throw a pretty thing like you in jail. So what do you say? You might even get to stay in Frank! Maybe, you know,"He sat up, brushing off his jacket and saying smoothly, "Let me give you a little tour? I know this spot right behind the eye, has the perfect view-"

"I'm not confessing."I said bluntly, frowning at the man and crossing my arms. He stopped dead-sentence, getting an almost dissapointed, puppy-sad look on his face and dropping his hands.

"Why not?"He asked, as if it weren't obvious! I frowned, glaring a bit as I snapped,

"I'm not betraying Thrax. Thank you for taking care of me, but I can't stay here."I tried to move, sitting up only to wince as a sharp pain coupled with a dizzying headache almost made me fall forwards out of the bed, hearing a surprised yelp as two arms quickly wrapped around me.

I paused, arms bent against a warm chest, two arms around me as Osmosis's voice came from above,

"Hey now! What did I say about movin'? There's no way we're letting you out of here before you're recovered!" I pushed back a bit, looking up and instantly feeling something odd and almost crawly in my gut, Osmosis bracing me with his hands on my back and a serious look on his face. I could feel his heat and for a moment froze, not knowing what to do. I'd never been this close with anyone other than Thrax before, and it certainly never gave me this odd feeling.

What was with these two and these..these...reactions they were giving me! It was beginning to grow frustrating, and I wanted nothing more than to get the Frank out of here and back to Thrax.

"Ma'am,"Drix suddenly cut in, looking all buisiness and serious, striking me as the complete oppisite of his partner, "As an agent who's duty it is to protect and uphold the health of others, I cannot allow you to leave our care without a full bill of health. At the moment you suffer from slight internal bruising and a mild case of hypothermia, requiring at least twelve hours of rest and liquids.

"Afterwards, we will take you down to the station for questioning, cooperation being a prime example of how to get yourself back on the right track." I continued to frown, eyebrows drawn as I measured him up, Osmosis still holding my back. I stood in front of the two, much weaker than normal but maybe not completely unable to take them down enough to flee and find Thrax.

Right now, as we agreed if anything should go wrong, he would be at the Ingrown Toenail, at least until morning hit. I could get there easy, so there was no reason to stay here. Hell...after what I'd done, I almost owed it to Thrax to get rid of these two. They were a major complication now, the biggest threat to the goal I'd encountered thus far, and I'd helped them once already.

...No matter how nice they were...or kind...or willing to heal me...or amusing... I couldn't let them, what if Thrax found out? Or what if they ruined everything? Why was I even asking these questions?! I suddenly realized this with a start, a sense of worry twisting inside me as I realized that, for the first time, I was questioning wether I wanted to help Thrax with his goal or let these two go free.

This had never happened before. Ever. I'd always selflessly fought for Thrax, because that's my purpose. I couldn't go against that! Of course not, so why was I thinking these things? Why were they even a consideration?...

"Listen, Ann,"Osmosis said, voice softer now as I looked up at him, seeing a sympathetic look on his face, "...Thrax...he's your big brother, right?"He asked, and I nodded slowly. Something like guilt crossed his eyes for a moment. Guilt. That was something I knew better than anyone, something that followed me like a dark cloud, something I knew like my own heartbeat. Guilt, something terrible that ate me apart.

But why would he be feeling guilty?

"See...there's no way in Frank that he...survived that blast."He said delicatly, almost like he wasn't talking to a virus but instead...a friend. A child. And part of me almost relaxed that this was all he had to tell me, that they actually thought Thrax was dead when I had not one shadow of a doubt that he was still alive.

But the other part was slowly, horrifyingly...complying. Not with the demands of confessing, not with the idea that Thrax was dead. But...what could staying here to heal hurt? I didn't need to worry Thrax with my injuries, or slow him down with my weakened state. And...as much as I hated to admit this, I almost found myself liking these two.

These odd, idiotic, amusing two. I looked each of them in the eye, then slowly sighed. 'Just one night. Tomorrow morning I leave bright and early, I'll find Thrax at the Hypothali-whatever Gland...'I thought to myself, before slowly shrugging.

"..Fine, okay."I agreed, and Osmosis suddenly pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Just had to work some of that Osmosis diffusion on ya, didn't I?"He exclaimed, and I found myself stifling a snort of laughter, Drix slapping Osmosis on the back of the head as he released me. I sat down on the bed, moving back and looking up at the two.

"You can't shake her around too much! Who knows what kind of trauma her head's gone through?"Drix demanded, and I sighed.

"Yeah, who knows..."I muttered, Osmosis turning and holding out his arms.

"And a sense of humor! Who knew Thrax's little sis could be oh so charming-"

"Jones, no flirting until after she's had her soup!"Drix exclaimed, jumping as a whistling came from the kitchen. Suddenly doing a flip of mood, Drix smiled and cheered happily, "Oh! The tea's ready too!" Before turning and floating out on a steady stream of bubbles. Jones turned and stuck his tongue out at the man, me sighing and brushing a hand through my dreadlocks, smoothing them back into place.

Just what had I just agreed to?


	6. Just One Day

_~Osmosis Jones~_

I felt like I had a little skip in my step now that she'd agreed to stay, already liking the girl's attitude. Yeah, she might be a little reserved and mysterious, but would we all be if our brother was one of the biggest, baddest virus mothers to ever grace Frank, and then we were suddenly thrown into an apartement with two cops(one considerably more hansom than the other) who were insisting on keeping her there until she healed?

We had to seem a little suspicious, but there was just something about this girl that I liked! Like there was something under the surface, a real girl just waiting to break out of her shell. I couldn't quite explain some of my decisions myself, like wanting so badly to have her confess and get off the hook. I mean, Leah was my girl, but this kid...I don't know. I saw friendship material in her!

"Hot stuff comin' through!"I exclaimed, carrying a bowl of steaming soup, "Oh, and the soup, too."I added in, feeling a sense of victory wash over me as a smile strained to remain off the girl's face, sitting up against her pillow with those deep blue eyes on me. Something funny happened in my chest, but I boiled it down to nothing as Drix ruined my funny mood.

"Hot food is nothing to joke about! She could burn her throat at any moment, and then we'd have another ailment to takecare of."He scolded, just as I handed her the soup and he shoved me, actually shoved me, out of the way!

"I highly doubt that this can burn me."She said in her slightly, only slightly, raspy voice, otherwise clear and almost melodic, with only a hint of her brother's tone.

"Why's that?"I asked curiously, as Drix took the unnecissairy thermometer out of her mouth so she could actually eat something. The second he did, his eyes flew wide and he exclaimed,

"195 degrees! That's impossible!"

"Not so much. I'm a heat virus, hence the whole 'burning claw' thing. That cold stuff really messed with my temp. That's actually kind of low, Thrax told me my normal temperature's around 197."Ann mused calmly, taking a painful-looking mouthful of burning-hot soup without so much as flinching. Hm, brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'she's hot'.

"Thrax took your temperature? Hard to believe."Drix mused all up-tight like, still looking at the thermometer in surprise. But that had piqued my interest, trying to imagine big-bad Thrax taking someone's temperature...and then promptly shivering, unable to imagine something quite like that.

"Sure, when I got sick who else was gonna take care of me? I didn't have two morally-confusing, danger-prone Immunity cops to help me."Ann mused, and I'd have been offended if what she said wasn't so surprising. I looked at her, confused if we were talking about the same Thrax. I sat on the bed, close to her as she pulled her legs criss-cross.

"Don't you got a family?"I inquired, not believing that this kid survived with just Thrax as a companion. She paused, looking up at us with that guarded look again, the nervous one, like she wasn't sure if she should tell us something or do something or not. And part of me suddenly ached to get rid of that look, to...to make her trust me?

I mean, maybe this was just from some bump I took during that explosion, but I suddenly wanted to know all about this kid. She was getting more and more interesting by the second...

"Um...no. Not really, I mean. It's been me and Thrax since as long as I can remember."She finally said, voice cautious and conserved, as if Thrax were listening now. As she said this, I suddenly felt that nagging sense of guilt twist up my stomach, thinking about how we'd just killed her brother and now she was here with us, probably terrified and confused.

I shouldn't feel bad about killing Thrax, he was a nasty virus! Tryin' to kill Frank in 48 hours, man, I should be titled a hero for life!...And yet, looking at this girl...she was slowly becoming more and more relatable, more like a normal citizen instead of some major crime-boss. This was one of those moments where Drix would say 'it's dangerous to get to know the subject! I can compromise blah blah blah blah...'

But I found that I really didn't care, that that nagging urge inside of me to know more about this girl overshadowed everything.

_~Ann~_

"So you two were pretty close, huh?"Osmosis asked as I sat there, wondering why the hell I was telling them all of this, and at the same time unable to stop because of some horrible sense of...of trust?

"...Yeah,"I found myself saying, shouting at myself for giving away all of this information, "He's all I've ever had, I guess." From the corner of my eye, I saw Drix actually lower the thermometer, feeling their eyes on me as I focused on the soup in my lap, seeing steam but tasting the equivalent of warm milk.

"Aw, now there ya go making me feel bad about blowing the guy up!"Osmosis exclaimed, throwing his hands up as I raised an eyebrow.

"You feel_bad_? But I'm the enemy, in case you keep on forgetting."I mused, and he gave me a lopsided smirk, shrugging.

"Please, you helped us, you can't be all bad!"He reasoned, and I rolled my eyes.

"Trying to protect you was about as easy as standing in the Eardrum during a rock concert."I mummbled, Osmosis giving a nervous little laugh.

"What can I say baby? Danger's my middle name!"He exclaimed, proudly puffing out his chest.

"No it's not, I thought you told me it was Chris."Drix corrected innocently, Osmosis instantly deflating and frowning, casting a glare over to the pill, who instead turned his attention to me. He pointed at me with a gloved hand, asking curiously,

"Why _did _you save us? If Thrax means so much to you, why go and save two people he obviously wanted gone?"

I paused, soup floating in the spoon just above the bowl as I looked at the two curious officers.

"Um...that's...nothing you need to know."I quickly stuttered, looking down and gulping down the last spoonful of soup.

"Aw, c'mon! It was my charming good-looks, wasn't it? Can't say I blame ya, when it comes to the ladies, Osmosis has _all_ the right chromosomes!"Osmosis exclaimed, popping out his collar and smiling, Drix rolling his eyes.

"That...doesn't make sense."I mummbled confused, tilting my head to the side and raising an eyebrow.

"I highly doubt that she would betray her partner because she found you attractive, Jones."Drix pointed out, Osmosis shrugging and saying calmly,

"Hey, I'd do it to you if I saw a fine-lookin' piece of cell walkin' around."

"Nice to see I have your support."Drix deadpanned, me just relieved that they'd gotten over their previous question and had resorted to their bickering, as usual. They seemed to argue more than they ever got along, and I began to wonder if they were really partners at all.

"So..."I said, timidly, both looking over at me, "...How long have you two been partners?"I asked, moving the bowl to the bedside table.

"Since this morning, when I was sent into the body to prevent the apparent cold symptoms inside of Frank...of course, things turned out much more complicated due to this imbicle's snooping around."Drix explained in his serious, proper tone. Osmosis huffed and crossed his arms, exclaiming,

"Hey! If I hadn't noticed somethin' fishy Thrax and Ann would have burned us all to a crispy crisp!...Oh, no offense!"He turned to me, holding up his hands. And...for some reason, it didn't bother me. It should have, oh it definitly should have, but it didn't. For some reason, his snooping around...maybe, somewhere inside me, I was glad he had? I was glad that someone was finally trying to save these bodies, these bodies that wracked me with guilt once they went up in flames, despite how happy I was that it made Thrax happy?

...Yes, maybe that was it. And maybe this thought made me terrified, made me shiver, but it wasn't like I was going to openly admit it ever. I would never admit that maybe, somewhere inside me...I hoped Osmosis would be able to stop this whole thing...but at the same time, I didn't want him to get involved, because maybe, just maybe, I was beginning to like these two, and if they intervened then I'd have no choice...I would have no choice...right?

I shrugged that thought off and, taking a moment to contemplate it...decided that yes, I did like these two, casting away what I new would be terrible reprocussions. And I decided that, yes, I was going to act like...well, myself around them.

"It's okay, that's how I first saw you anyway. When you were looking in the cave-tissue in the throat."I explained, feeling an unfamiliar freeing sense as I finally relaxed. Osmosis jumped excitedly and pointed a finger at me, exclaiming,

"I knew it was you! See Drips, I wasn't crazy!"

"No, you're definitly crazy, this was just an instance when you had a lucky guess. But why did you follow Jones into the caves?"Drix asked, and I shrugged.

"Don't know, something about how...I don't know, curious you were drew me in. Usually cells don't go looking for clues, that's how Thrax and I've been able to get away with all these...well, you know."I explained, running a hand nervously through my dreads. Osmosis leaned forward, raising an eyebrow as he asked skeptically and almost surprised,

"Wait, you mean to tell me that a cell's never questioned anything you two've done?" I shook my head, looking down a bit as I said quietly, almost sad-feeling as I thought back on all of the bodies, on all of the helplessness the ones around me went through,

"Not until it was too late." There was a silence that followed, a silence where I wondered instantly if I'd shared too much... I'd never told anyone any of this. Never once, keeping it all bottled up inside. But then again, I'd never had the chance to. Never would I tell Thrax about how I didn't want to kill these people. Never would I even speak one word to the germs he hired. And, even when I was a little girl, I'd never had a friend, not one.

I'd only ever had Thrax, and as much as I loved him...I couldn't tell him these things. It wasn't that I was afraid of telling him...I was just afraid of his reaction, of the betrayal in his eyes, of...of something that I wasn't afraid of with these two. I'd known them no longer than two hours, I'd tried to kill them and vice versa, they were cops and I was a criminal...

But I still found myself beginning to actually care about these two. Not just feeling pressured to, but maybe even wanting to tell them these things.

"...You don't like killing people, do you?"Osmosis broke the silence, and I faultered, looking up surprised and slipping out nervously,

"I-it's Thrax's dream...it makes him happy. We're a team, he's all I've ever had, and so what makes him happy is what I do."

"That's not what he asked."Drix suddenly interrupted, and I looked up at him surprised. He was giving me a serious look, eyebrows drawn and arms crossed. "It might be what Thrax wanted, but was it what you wanted?" I paused again, biting my lip as I searched for a response. I wanted what made Thrax happy...

"Hey, you can tell us."The softness and genuine feeling in Osmosis's voice caught me off guard, looking over to see him giving me a lopsided smile, legs crossed in front of me and giving me a look that did something funny to me, made something flutter in my chest. I sighed, scratching my neck for a second as I tried to think of how I got into this situation. I slid my hand across my face quickly and back into my lap.

Damnit, things weren't supposed to get this complicated. I wasn't supposed to get kidnapped, these two weren't supposed to mean anything to me, and I certainly wasn't supposed to say what I said next.

"No. I hate it. I shouldn't, because it makes Thrax so happy...but seeing all those cells, all those people..."I trailed off, shifting uncomftorbly as Drix made almost a surprised 'hm'.

"Hey!"Osmosis said, surprisingly excited, "I knew you were a good guy!" I looked up at him, jaw dropped and wondering if he'd hit his head a bit too hard in that explosion.

"I'm sorry, what? A good guy? Do you even know how many cells I've killed?"I asked, and he waved his hand in a shooing motion.

"Please! If you didn't want to do it, that's all that matters! I mean, Thrax is your big brother, I get that, and it must have been real hard to not want to do something he wanted to do. But you just got caught up in a tough situation, Ann girl! Now that Thraxy's gone, you can start all over again!"Osmosis kept going on after that, but I stopped listening. I caught onto what he said last, those words that rang harshly in my head and gave me an odd, light feeling.

'You can start all over again!'...Was something like that even possible for someone like me? To start over, to do something that didn't kill me inside? Maybe even...be a normal family with Thrax?..No, that seemed impossible to imagine Thrax as anything but this. He'd always wanted to be in the medical books, always wanted to prove himself as the dominant virus. We grew up alone, as the only two viruses of our kind, and so people immediatly doubted us.

Thrax took that and made what he was today...and it hit me hard. Hit me like that bomb times ten, right in the chest. For a moment, it was a terrifying thought. For a moment, I felt like a horrible, terrible sister. For a moment...and then the moment ended. Thrax. This was what he wanted, what he strived for. And I'd always assumed that what he wanted was what I should want...

But what if I really could start over? What if I could do what I wanted? What if I broke from being dedicated to Thrax's life and started focusing on my own? It was a ridiculous thought, just a 'what if'...but still...

"So girl, about that date behind the eye-"

"Jones!"Drix exclaimed, smacking Osmosis on the back of his head. I snapped back, laughing and shaking my head.

"You're lucky that her brother isn't here. I don't imagine that Thrax would take kindly to you hitting on his sister."Drix scolded like a teacher, and I nodded lightly.

"True that."I said, Osmosis looking at me surprised.

"What? He protective or something?"He asked, rubbing where Drix had smacked him with his gun-hand. I nodded, tucking some of my dreads behind my ear and thinking back on the last time someone had taken an interest in me.

"Ever hear about Ebola?"I asked, thinking back on what I considered one of the best brotherly moments Thrax had ever displayed.

"You mean that virus that completely dissapeared from the biological spectrum two years ago?"Drix asked, and I leaned back, nodding with a lopsided smile.

"Yep, that's the last guy who ever asked me out on a date."I mused, "I was in Africa two years ago with Thrax when we met him. We were trying to take over the same body, but he was just too sleezy for me to even try and compare him to Thrax. Seriously, he always gave me this creepy smile, and I had to punch him twice before Thrax finally got sick of it.

"You should have seen the look on his face when Ebola tried to make a move on me. Seriously, I've never seen him so angry in my life. He cut down Ebola in two seconds, sending him quivering away down a pour in the body's forehead. Once word got out, I never had an issue ever again."I explained, Osmosis gulping for a second before quickly recovering.

"Hm, I never expected someone like Thrax to hold an emotional bond over anyone."I heard Drix mummble so quietly it couldn't have been meant for anyone but himself, but I had heard it. And it was true. Through his crimes, his self-serving goals, and the agreeable bad influence he had on me, there was never a doubt in my mind that he cared about me.

"Well, now that he's gone, does that mean I'm safe?"Osmosis asked slyly, and I let out another laugh.

"You're funny, Osmosis."I chuckled, and he got a giant grin on his face.

"Hey, call me Ozzy!"He smoothed out, and I paused.

"Ozzy?"

"Yeah!"He exclaimed, giving me a light smack on the shoulder, "We're friends, no need for formalities!" Friends...that term made my heart drop in horror and jump in excitement all at the same time, confusing me for a second. Friends...yes, unfortunatly I felt like that's what we'd become in this short amount of time. That was wonderful, because I'd never truly had friends before...

But it was terrible, because I knew that, no matter how conflicted they made me, come morning I was going to the Hypothalimus Gland. I looked up at Drix, and to my surprise he finally cracked a smile, nodding at me and saying,

"I believe that term is appropriate. Call me Drix." Drix too? He seemed the most stubborn out of the two to even have me here! And yet he wanted to be friends, without knowing more than my criminal record?...These two were either the biggest idiots I'd ever met, or the two most wonderful people in any body I'd ever been in.

So what if it was going to end tomorrow? I was going to enjoy tonight. As a normal child, I thought, for the first time. A smile slowly spread on my face, and I nodded.

"Okay then...I'd like that."

"Great!"Ozzy exclaimed, throwing up his arms, "Hey, you ever listen to James Brown?"He asked, and I shook my head. He jumped clear off the bed and pulled out a cassett out of his jacket pocket, slapping it into a radio next to me with gusto and pressing 'play'. A voice rang out immediatly, a nice soulful voice, not quite like Thrax's, but still nice.

"C'mon man! Get down! Let's practice those dance moves!"Ozzy exclaimed, moving to the music in a way that was both absolutely hilarious and not half bad at the same time. He moved his hands and shook his butt in the air, Drix pausing a moment before doing what I assumed was dancing, but looked more like moving his hands in a circular motion and moving from side-to-side.

"Uh-huh! Get down with us Ann!"Ozzy suddenly exclaimed, reaching over and taking my arm. I wasn't prepared, legs giving out a bit and causing me to fall forward, for the second time, to Ozzy's chest. He laughed above me, a nice and true laugh, before exclaiming,

"That's right! Just let me show you!" I looked up at him and smirked, something sparking inside of me as I stepped back.

"Please, I've been in enough shady, hole-in-the-wall clubs to know how to dance."I defended, feeling my legs slowly thawing as I, for the first time, actually danced. I mean, I'd danced when I was little, but that was just little kid dancing when Thrax and I were just by ourselves, remembering how he'd laugh and try to focus on choosing any song that would have made my 5-year-old self stop dancing.

It was one of those moments that had fallen behind and away as Thrax slowly became more enveloped by his goals. A lot of fun moments had fallen back like that, like him singing, actually singing, or even doing something as stupid as playing tag. And I suddenly realized how much Thrax had really changed over the years...

But not now. I wouldn't worry about that now. I'd just focus on this right here, this happiness and these...friends. So I danced, trying to remember all the moves I'd seen other girls do and not doing too bad, moving my hips and even some odd foot movements that Ozzy was doing.

"Dang girl! What bodies you been in, Shakira?"Ozzy asked jokingly, and I laughed.

"You'd be surprised what I can pick up from places like the Zit!..Drix, what are you doing?"I finally asked, turning and seeing him bobbing up and down with his wrists crossed in front of him, mimicking riding a horse.

"It's the new dance craze I believe, mainly amoung teenagers and middle-aged asian men."Drix explained as seriously as he could while doing that ridiculous move.

"Kids these days seriously concern me."I laughed, shaking my head as Ozzy suddenly took my hands, spinning me to him and twirrling me around. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had this much fun, when I'd laughed this freely, or even when I'd smiled so happily that my face began to hurt.

"I think I could get used to you, girl! Bring some groove into our little trio!"Ozzy exclaimed, and I smiled. That thought, while impossible, was so wonderful that...for a moment I would later regret...I agreed with.

~That Night~

I felt my side, Drix having removed the medical bandage, not even so much as a pinch of pain where it used to throb. My entire body thawed out, returning my temperature to normal and radiating a nice, comforting heat inside of my chest. It was...nice. Today, after we'd danced to the entire cassette, Ozzy and Drix told stories about their jobs, and I mentioned once or twice different viruses I'd cut down over the years.

Now I lay in bed, Drix gathering up the medical supplies while Ozzy looked for some air fresheners to remove the cherry scent wafting from Drix's bubbles.

"There you go. Now get a good night's rest and tomorrow we'll report to the station to evaluate your current situation. With Jones and mine's proposals, I can't imagine you'll get any harsher a punishment than working with Osmosis."

"Hey! I heard that!"Ozzy exclaimed, walking in and spritzing Drix with some bottle, making the large pill huff and spin to me.

"Goodnight, Ann."He said softly, and actually tucked me in, pulling the covers to my chin before turning and taking the medical supplies out of the room.

"Night Ann girl, sleep tight, don't let the chloroplasts bite!"Ozzy exclaimed. Before I could respond, he leaned down and planted a light, innocent kiss on my forehead, making that fluttering in my chest come back and a smile spreading on my face against my own will.

"Night Ozzy."I said, and he turned away, shouting as he shut the door to the room,

"Nu-uh! You ain't gettin' my couch all cherry-stanky with that bubble butt!" I chuckled and rolled my eyes as the door shut, the room quiet with the boys voices coming from the living room area outside. I snuggled down in the bed, slowly closing my eyes and sighing.

"What have you done to yourself this time, Ann?"I whispered to myself. "You let yourself get close to these guys...and then what? You go down two paths, and each one means betraying someone you care about. Thrax or these two..." As if I didn't already know the answer. When it came between two people I'd just met and my big brother, Thrax won everytime...

Though now, something seemed to taint an idea that was once so simple to me. These two had made me think of my situation in a different way, made me want things I could never have. And it was all my fault for letting them. Yeah, today was amazing, wonderful...

But tomorrow would go back to how things always were. I'd have no friends, I'd be killing another innocent person, and I'd be helping Thrax with his goals. Life would go on as normal...

So why did it all suddenly seem so wrong?


	7. Did I Let This Happen?

_-Thank you to all the reviewers, I love everyone who's taking the time to read this and I sincerely hope you enjoy it!-_

_~Ann~_

I stood at the doorway of the bedroom, jacket around me as well as my normal temperature keeping me warm... And yet there was a chill somewhere inside me, a chill that I should never have let take place. But I couldn't let it stop me, couldn't let it interfere with all that I'd ever been taught. Whether it was wrong or right couldn't be discussed, not when Thrax needed me. Not when I needed him, to reassure me that this, all of this, was worth it.

Any pain that I went through would only serve to teach me not to grow attatched to anyone outside of Thrax, to learn a lesson in how someone like me couldn't make friends and keep them... _'You can start all over again!'_...he had no idea how many times those words rang through my ears last night, barely getting any sleep as I lay awake, wide awake, even now.

Even as the body slowly woke up, the lights outside barely flickering on. No noises on the streets spare the occasional car of the person going to work early. No noises, a hushed silence that lulled me into thinking that no one could possibly be awake at this hour. That was my mistake, again.

I crept towards the door, combat boots securely on and barely tapping on the floor, fourcing myself to keep walking towards the door. Towards the Hypothalimus Gland. Towards Thrax.

"You're up! Great!"I froze, dread falling in my chest as I grit my teeth, face wincing as Osmosis's voice cheered from behind me, walking up in front of me and asking, a happy-go-lucky look on his face, so ignorant to what was really going on. A happy look that hurt me with a pain that would do more than convince me that this would never happen again.

"Say, where ya headin' Ann girl? Drips just whipped up some fine-lookin' Thykaloidcakes!"He exclaimed, the sound of Drix's bubbles coming right up behind me, Drix removing a light pink apron and tossing it to the side as he, too, beamed at me with a surprising amount of genuine happiness. Great, it would have made this much easier if he'd been as suspicious as he was to start.

I paused, laughing nervously and wondering if I could still get out of this.

"I-uh...was going for a walk?"I tried, both of them raising their eyebrows, Ozzy still smiling.

"C'mon girl, someone might see you and snatch you away from us, lookin' all pretty like that in streets like these!"He exclaimed, and I laughed with him nervously. No, this wasn't going as planned. In fact, this was becoming very, very bad. To the point where...I might just have to use force to get past them. I'd delayed long enough, just sitting in the bed and fighting a war with myself, and I didn't have much more time to waste.

"Haha, I think I can handle myself-"

"Besides!"Drix interrupted merrily, "You get to come to the station with us today! Osmosis, do you think that, due to our recent achievements, the Chief will let Ann partner with you?" Ozzy waved his hand and exclaimed,

"Psssht, with what we just did? He'll let both a y'all partner with the soon-to-be famous Osmosis Jones! Ya know, as like my understudies."He popped his jacket out and smirked, Drix rolling his eyes as their bickering that once brought me amusement now just made this so much more painful. I slumped my shoulders, looking at the floor and rubbing one arm.

"Guys..."I said quietly, sadly.

"Please, if anything you'd be partnered with me! I am a Cold Pill, afterall, one of the strongest agents against runny noses, sore throats, aches and-"

"Blah blah blah! You got a scratch on your record player Drips?"

"Guys."I tried again, a bit louder, almost feeling something in my chest breaking. It couldn't be my nucleus. If I had one of those, I wouldn't be doing this to them.

"Oh grow up! Honestly, how did you even make it onto Immunity!"

"Wasn't from blowin' bubbled out my butt, I'll tell ya that!"

"Guys."I tried, through clenched teeth, looking up as Drips scoffed and exclaimed,

"Please, we'll settle this when we all go down to the station-"

"I'm not going." This time, my voice was lower. And yet both stopped cold, turning and facing me with confused, surprised faces that I just had to avoid, looking down and holding one arm with the other hand, cursing myself inwardly for ever putting myself into this situation.

"Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Ann girl? Somethin' wrong?"Ozzy asked, and I shook my head, closing my eyes in frustration.

"No, that's not it..."I paused, Drix intervening with,

"Well, then what is it?"Not suspicious. Not angry. Curious. Concerned. And that hurt more than anything.

I sighed, looking up at them and seeing their almost concerned faces. Damnit, stop looking so worried about me! No one was ever supposed to worry about me! It was supposed to be me and Thrax until the bitter end! So why...why did I want to stay with these two? And why couldn't I bring myself to?!

"Listen,"I said, voice heavy with a dark, regretful, almost angry tone, "Thrax is still alive."I said, looking at them harshly, seriously. I couldn't do this anymore, couldn't waste time hurting myself more with playing with these idiots. I had to get down to buisiness, had to end this with fource if necissairy.

They looked surprised, but I kept going, unable to stop myself once I started,

"I know him better than anyone, and one little bomb like that ain't gonna kill him. He's still out there and...and I have to go back to him now. So thank you, thank you for taking care of me but...but I have to go so move!"I shouted the last part, trying to keep myself together when clearly it wasn't working. They still looked so confused, but Drix seemed to be catching on quicker, narrowing his eyes a bit.

I just didn't want to see the betrayal that was beginning to show. Couldn't see it.

"But...what about being a team?"Ozzy asked, and just the sound of his voice almost broke me. I shook my head, knowing that I was hurting them and for the first time actually caring.

"I'm...I'm only a team with Thrax. He's my big brother, he's all I have..."I said, Ozzy frowning a sad, hurt frown, and it took every ounce of anything I had to not look away from him. All this was my fault, my pain and theirs. Even Thrax's, with his plan being disrupted, the last 24 hours ticking. All my damn fault...

"But you got us, kid."Ozzy tried, pointing to himself and Drix, who looked almost as conflicted as I felt, looking from Ozzy to me and back. You got us. If only I could. If only he knew how much I wanted that... I stepped backwards and shook my head, looking seriously up at each of them and saying in a dead-serious tone, trying to cover up my pain,

"Thank you for taking care of me. I owe both of you...so I'm going to give you a choice. Either move and let me leave without fource...or stay, and I'll have to move you myself." Ozzy's eyes narrowed, conflicted and lost for words, taking a step back as I looked away from his eyes, unable to hold in his stare any longer without being tempted to just...just stay.

But staying wasn't an option anymore. I knew that when I started talking to them. When I stayed. When I danced. I knew it, and I enjoyed it, but now it was time for the concequences.

Drix seemed quicker to recover, straightening up and pointing his gun-hand at me, trying to look serious-faced when I could see the pain and hesitation behind his eyes. At least him pointing the gun at me made this almost a bit easier. Ozzy looked from Drix to me, incredolously, as if he could believe what was going on.

"Draw your gun, Jones, I can't take her alone."Drix said, serious, voice just a bit strained. Ozzy looked at him in shock, then at me, his face so...so sad, so confused, so betrayed. And there was nothing I could do but make it worse. Slowly, as if it were the last thing in the world he wanted to do, he pulled the gun from his waist and slowly pointed it at me.

So fource it would have to be. Thrax was waiting...

"You have no idea how much I don't want to hurt you."I muttered, fists clenching, nails biting into my palms. Drix's face remained cold and a mask, saying in a professional, scripted tone,

"We, as officers of Frank's health, cannot just let you pass by..." I paused, looking from him to Ozzy...Osmosis. Ozzy was for friends, afterall. And I was pretty damn sure friends didn't do what I was about to.

"Fine then."I said calmly, and moved before they could even react. I shot to the side, ducking under Drix's gun and kicking sideways, sending him crashing into the counter behind him, me jumping up and landing a foot in his face.

"Oof!"He exclaimed, me biting my lip harder everytime I hit him until I thought I was going to bleed, instead just clenching my jaw as he fell, unconcious. I heard a whizzing behind me and ducked, quickly spinning a foot on the ground and tripping Jones backwards.

"Yo yo yo!"He exclaimed, stumbling back as I leaped up and tackled him, knocking him into the wall next to the bedroom door. I twisted his wrist just like Thrax taught me, the gun falling as his face contorted in pain. I instantly let go, grabbing the gun and pointing it at him with both hands, stradling his waist as he lay, looking up at me surprised and pained and confused.

I panted, not from exertion, but from all of the emotions I was keeping down. Because they were welling up in my chest, making it hard to breathe, making it hard to move. Once I was out it would be better, it would be easier as I got to Thrax and he reminded me of why I was fighting alongside him an no one else...

"Ann..."Osmosis panted out, face scrunched up in sadness, in confusion. And I grit my teeth, feeling my own face scrunch in my inner self-turmoil, hands lightly shaking as I held the gun up to him. Just one pull of the trigger and I'd prevent myself from ever seeing him again. Just one pull and he'd be better off, and I'd be better off...

"...Please, Osmosis. Don't go looking for us."I was suddenly saying quietly, strained, "Leave Frank, just please don't try and fight Thrax." He raised his eyebrows slowly in surprise as I pocketed the gun, turning and standing quickly, getting to the door and flinging it open.

I paused a second, stopping in a silence and looking back at the white-blood cell, who propped himself up on his elbows, looking numb with shock and utter confusion. Yesterday was so perfect. So why was today hell?

"...Thank you, Osmosis Jones..."I whispered sadly, before moving out and slamming the door behind me, lighting a nail and dragging it down the crease of the doorway, welding it shut and turning. I jumped, moving from rooftop to rooftop as fast as I could, just trying to distance myself from them, from the apartement, from Osmosis Jones and Drix.

Hypothalimus Gland. There, I'd find Thrax. There, I'd be reassured that this...all of it...it had to be worth it...right?

_~Osmosis Jones~_

I felt...almost numb, confused and...dissapointed? Dissapointed because I'd already thought about how chill it would have been to be a team with that kid and, hey, even Drips! I mean, the kid had that cool-chick factor to bring to us, not to mention a wit sharper than her claws and some serious moves! I'd planned out our sucess, rising to the top, just like my ancestors...

But in the end, she still went back to Thrax. After we'd taken care of her, after we'd had so much fun, the kid was still loyal to Thrax? It should have been obvious to me, gotten through my membrane that she was a virus, but not just that, a virus who'd only had her big brother to look after her her whole life, a virus brainwashed into being her brother's aid in all these murders that she wanted nothing to do with!

Maybe I'd expected her to change, after everything we'd done. I mean, the kid confided in us that she hated killing! That the only reason she did this was for Thrax...and I'd thought that it would all change because I'd killed him. But the look in her eyes when she said he wasn't dead, there wasn't a doubt in her mind. He was still alive, Frank was still in danger, and no matter how much it hurt that it was Ann, the innocent girl caught up in a bad situation, that we had to fight...we had to do it.

"Osmosis!"I heard chief shout from his office as Drix and I walked through the station, hands shoved into my pockets with a frown on my face, wondering if he knew that Thrax was still alive, wondering if this were to congradulate us on blowing that Zit sky-high, along with all those viral bacterial mothers, and if it were, ending it with the news that Frank was still in danger would be all the worse.

The door lifted open, Drix streaching it as he fit his frame inside, Chief standing angrily behind his desk next to his spinny chair that faced the wall, with that angry, gruff face I was so used to...but there was something else, too. Something behind his eyes, some sort of weird sadness that was mimicked in the eyes of Leah who stood next to his desk, biting her lip in a way that was oh so fine-

"Jones."I heard a disembodied voice say in the mayor's voice, jumping and looking around for the tiny little guy, wondering if he got stuck under Chief. I mean, the man could us a cardio session or seven, and if the mayor had somehow gotten sucked underneath-

"You really did it now, Jones."Mayor said, spinning around and glaring daggers at me. I ignored that, trying to act as if nothing bad had happened because, seriously, if they found out I'd not only helped out one of the viruses trying to infect Thrax but also let her get away, I'd be in crack duty for years!

"Mr. Mayor! Didn't see you back there!"I exclaimed, Mayor Phlemming jumping from the seat and walking around, finger waving at me madly as he exclaimed,

"Disregarding orders, destruction of public flesh, popping a pimple without a permit!"He spit with every 'p', me nonchalantly brushing it off my jacket as I gave him a wide-eyed look. He was angry at me for...what? Popping the Zit? He didn't even know the worst of it! In fact, he was freaking over the best part! "Just what were you thinking?!"He demanded, walking right up to me.

"What was I doin'?!"I exclaimed, getting defensive as the others around us tensed, "I was promotin' good health sir!" Mayor P. rolled his eyes and held his hands out, saying in a mocking, sarcastic tone,

"Ohh, is _that _what you call it."

"He was a lethal virus sir!"Drix exclaimed behind me, coming to my aid, "If we hadn't stopped him-"

"We'd be fried eggs over Frank's dead butt!"I exclaimed, interupting him as Leah gasped, Mayor glowering up at us and saying in a hushed tone,

"You watch your mouth, kid. Talk like that could start a panic!" Frustrated, knowing the Mayor and the reason for him being so uptight and furious about any little mishap being his 're-election', as if this lazy, greedy little blob could ever win over anyone but the folks in the Love Handles, I shouted right back in his face,

"At least that would get people to start thinkin' 'bout what's goin' on in this body! Instead of worryin' about some stupid trip to the Buffalo Wing Factory!" Leah and the Mayor both recoiled, worried looks on their faces as I knew the second those words left my mouth that I should have just stood back and shut up.

The mayor's eyes darkened, his tone lowering as he sneered angrily,

"Alright Jones, you want us to start thinking? Well here's a thought: You're fired!"

My nucleus dropped, a chill running up my back as everything around me seemed to just still. Fired?...He was firing me. Firing me for...for what? For trying to save Frank from a virus? For actually doing something good for once? For not goofing off, for taking a case more seriously than anyone else in this body?

After all these years of trying to live down one little mistake, a mistake that saved Frank, of trying to reach the top, of trying to achieve the greatness that all of those who came before me reached...after all of that, I finally do something meaninful. I finally get a case, and I try and save Frank. All for what? To just end up the laughing stock again? To remain the underdog for the rest of my life, no matter how hard I tried?

Well, if that were the case, then fine. Bein' fired didn't matter, it never did. Not like I'd ever do anything anyway.

"Mr. Mayor!"Leah exclaimed, a broken look on her sweet face.

"I want your gun and your badge right here!"The mayor ordered, tapping the desk with a finger and walking around to the Chief, who, surprisingly, also had a torn and shocked face. I huffed, opening my jacket and pulling out the only two things that ever defined me.

"Figures,"I mummbled angrily, walking up to the desk, "I finally do something good for Frank and I get fired." I threw both things on the desk, Chief sitting slowly with a sad, broken look on his face. I stood up, looking at Leah for just a moment as she frowned, a sorry look fogging her eyes. A look that, while I appreciated it, wouldn't help me.

I turned and walked, Leah calling my name quietly as I did. I didn't turn around, couldn't. Not as I exited the building, not as I jumped in my car, and not as I rolled down the street, the early-morning traffic cleared and leaving only oxygen waste beggin' on the streets and a few dirty newspapers. Couldn't stand their looks of pity and sadness without them standing up to that little man, that little man who would be the death of Frank no matter what...no matter what. No matter what, Thrax was still alive. No matter what, Ann was gonna help him, which meant that they might already be in the brain.

I felt my cytoplasm run cold and I stiffened. So what if I just got fired? I didn't have to be a cop to want to save Frank, didn't have to be a hero to stop Thrax! If I didn't do somethin', and quick, then Frank and all of us were burnt toast! I spun the wheel sharply to the right, the tires screeching and storeowners shouting at me from their huts, but I barely even heard them. Drix had to be heading toward the bladder, that's where all of the pill agents went when they were dismissed.

But I couldn't let him go, not when we still had to get Thrax! Mayor be damned, Frank was in danger and we were gonna save him! I floored it down the road, the station passing in a blur as I kept my eyes forward, white-knuckling it on the wheel as I swerved, screeched, and honked all the way downtown. My nucleus pounded, hoping I wouldn't be too late. I couldn't do this without Drips! We were a team, no matter what, that's what he'd signed up for and that's what we'd defeat Thrax and Ann as.

I saw the parking lot for the bladder and blasted into it, almost running over a few Gatoraid sugar molecules as I did, throwing the car around and not caring if I were double-parking. I couldn't even remember if I'd turned my baby off before I jumped clear out of the driver's seat and pushed my way through the crowd.

In front of me was a long, cramped, cement bridge with tall guard rails on either side, a line of germs, cells, molecules and particles standing in line with their luggage and waiting for the man at the archway to let them pass through to where people were already standing in the yellow liquid in the ditch-like Bladder, each prepared to get the royal flush.

I saw him, and agreeably it was hard to miss that cherry stank and giant red body that dwarfed everyone standing on this platform, and headed straight forward.

"Drips! Yo, Drips!"I shouted, seeing him turn around in line with a somber, down-on-himself look on his face.

"Jones, what are you doing here?"He asked, but I ignored it and grabbed his giant arm.

"Drips! Get your time-release but off this boat, Thrax is alive! C'mon!"I exclaimed, man-handling him through the angry passengers -was that guy carrying a picachu?- as they glared at us. Suddenly, Drips pulled his arm out of my grasp and turned, me looking back at him in shock.

"Sorry, Osmosis...I can't help you..."He said sadly, hanging his pill head. I gaped, wondering if this were the same macho-man, super-relief anti-cold jackass I'd had to deal with for almost two days!

"Excuse me?"I demanded, walking right up behind him. He held out his gun-arm and said somberly,

"I'm not designed to combat a virus, read my label." If this guy got any more angsty he'd be on a highschool soap opera!

"C'mon man, you gotta think outside the medicine cabinet!"I tried, yelling to try and get it through his thick skull. Maybe even a little white-lie or two, anything to get him to come with me! I didn't want to do this without that guy, because, yeah, maybe he'd become my best friend now! We'd started this together, I didn't want to have to finish it without him because he gave up! "I've known sugar pills who've cured cancer, just because they believed they could."I pleaded, and he continued to give me that melancholy frown.

"Oh, I don't know Ozzy...look at me. I'm cherry flavored."He sighed out, before turning and floating towards the arch. I couldn't believe it...he was really ditching out on me, just like Ann did? Uh-uh, was everyone goin' crazy now?! Was I really the only one here who wanted to save Frank?! Anger welled up in my chest, but not just that, oh no. Betrayal, too. Because I'd always thought Drix would do anything for Frank, anything for me...

Guess I was wrong 'bout him, too.

"Fine! Be like Ann! Flush your life down the toilett!"I shouted, watching him stop on the urine platform, me turning and pushing my way back through the crowd. I thought as I walked, as I huffed and puffed, about what I would do now that everyone had turned their backs on me. After all the odds were stacked against me and I still had to go get Thrax and Ann, to save Frank.

I looked out, shaking my head sadly as the uring pool suddenly flushed and swirrled down the ditch, carrying all of its passengers who would be safe from Thrax...carrying the only person I thought could help me save the ones still here...

"Jones." The car dipped as my head snapped to the side, eyes widening as the ol' red cherry stank fumed into the car, a massive pill-agent leaning in the window and streaching my baby, but I didn't care. He gave me a sly smirk and asked, "Do you really know a sugar pill that cured cancer?"

I beamed, heart instantly lightening and the future against Thrax and Ann looking brighter.

"Nah, but it makes for a good pep talk, don't it?"I asked, and he smiled right back as he jumped into the car, ripping off that stupid label and tossing it out the window as I swung the car around and floored it out of that nasty terminal.

"Let's catch us a cold!"Drips exclaimed, as I grinned, blaring down the road with my best friend in tow, ready to take down that virus.

_~Thrax~_

I couldn't believe it. This was almost too good to be true, too _sick _ to not be a joke! I laughed, ripping the tattered brown curtain from the window and splaying my hands on the dirt-crusted glass, looking out at the polluted, grimey city I was about to take down, the city that actually didn't believe him! They were just _begging_ to get lit up!

I turned, claw hand still pressed to the glass while the other wrapped around me, supporting me as I just laughed at how _simple_ they were making their demise!

"They're making this too easy!"I exclaimed, laughing harder, thinking of that newspaper headline I'd just had Sneeze pick off that old, now rather messy, paper vender. I turned to the two, laughter stopping as I pulled my chain out my pocket, looking at the cowardly-confused germs I'd just trash as soon as I got the chance.

"You know in all the bodies I've been in, no one's ever gotten wise with me,"I explained, then turned and pointed my claw to the window, the chain rattling like a sexy rhythm, "And now for the _first time_ , an Immunity cell's figured out everything, and they don't believe him!" I turned back to the two, feeling a smile on my face as they both looked at each other uncertainly.

Soon, they began to laugh, though they had no right to. They were about as useless as a piece of lint, doing nothing more than somehow staying alive through that explosion that took my Ann away from me. The thought put me in a more sour mood than I wanted to be in, knowing damn well that she could handle herself better than anyone out here, but at the same time feeling that annoying, nagging feeling that something had happened to her.

She was my baby, my little sister, and I'd trained her to be the most deadly, able-bodied virus to ever grace this planet, other than myself. The thought of her hurt, though, sent me into a bad feel. I should have protected her when I saw that grenade go flying, and the fact that she wasn't in my immediate care was inconveniant. I needed that girl to complete the plan, to share our names in the medical books, but she knew what to do if we got split up. I'd be surprised if she weren't already in the Hypothalimus herself.

Now all that was left was to plan our future. It was almost complete, the ultimate score, the thing we'd both been fighting for. Imagine, two orphans, not one virus of the same kin, fighting and protecting each other, and we end up being the most deadly duo in the history of sickness. Maybe, after another score or even two, I'd be able to keep her out of this buisiness for awhile. She'd always be by my side, that was why I'd kept her in the game, she was all I had. My little girl, my best partner.

If I could keep her safe, that was all good. But now, she wasn't with me for the first time since I could remember, and that put a thorn in my side that these two idiots' laughter wasn't helping.

"Shut up!"I demanded, both of them jumping and cowering from me like the little flu-snots they were. I seethed, straightening up and saying, "What are you two laughin' at?" They gulped and I rolled my eyes, turning and throwing a sheet of the bed of an old, run-down truck in the corner of the room.

"Alright, we're back on schedual! I find Ann in the Hypothalimus, and then we sent this sucker up in flames."I ordered, opening the side of my jacket and taking a few pollen pods we'd collected from the nose out of the bed of the truck, stuffing them neatly inside.

"Uh, boss, we're the only ones left,"Crust said nervously, offering, "Maybe we should..incubate for awhile?" I straightened up, eyes widening at the gall he had to even offer something like that! Incubate?! Incubate?! We were running behind on schedual as it was! My nerves were fraying on end, and it was time to just slice these two out of the picture. I could do this on my own, even if I had to find Ann after the place started burning!

I wasn't waiting, I wasn't losing! I spun around, lighting my claw and pointing it to the man's face as both of them had looks of pure shock and horror, me glowering as I said in a deadly tone,

"You incubate. I said 48 hours I'm gonna make my deadline." I threw my claw down, ripping the germ in half and, in one swing, brought my hand sideways and swung it across the wall, red lava-like veins erupting from the gash as I made a quick, simple exit, the other germ screaming and throwing himself around, trying to find a way to get away from his red, fiery death.

I walked out, the place tourching loudly behind me as I glared, muttering to myself furiously, feeling the anger and pending deadline searing in my veins,

"Medical books aren't written about losers!"

And I wasn't gonna be a loser. No, I'd make a nice reputation for Ann and me, we both would. We'd show them, we'd accomplish our dream. No more delays.


	8. Moments of Hesitation

_-So, we're approaching the end, and honestly it went kind of fast! I loved writing this and it's an amazing movie, and I love all of you for reading it. It feel it appropriate now to let you know that there will be a sequal in the future and I hope you'll read! Enjoy!-_

_~Ann~_

The security here was a joke, and I would have mocked it more had I not been entirely focused on getting to Thrax. I managed to walk right in and get on an elevator. Without so much as a second glance! I didn't exactly look like a red-blood cell! I rolled my eyes inwardly and focused on getting to the Hypothalimus, standing calmly as the elevator attendent stood in a prim tuxedo with a white mustache, clearly an elderly white-blood cell.

Great, just one more thing that I had to fight down reminding me of Osmosis. I looked up at him as he asked in an eldery, proper tone,

"Floor, ma'am?"

"The Hypothala...Hypo...Hypa.."Damnit! Thrax, choose a target with an easier name! The man seemed nothing more than amused, smiling at me kindly and asking,

"The Hypothalimus Gland?" I cleared my throat in embarrasment and nodded, running a hand through my dreads that still weren't in a ponytail, which bothered me. Ever since I was ten I'd always kept them back, but it this were my greatest inconvenience than I was doing alright.

"Unfortunatly, only authorized personal are allowed up there. Do you have an ID?"The man asked, and I inwardly cursed. I had absolutely zero time for this, and I silently apologized to the man as I slid my left hand from my jacket and lit the nails, suddenly lunging at the man as he called out, eyes wide as I pinned him to the wall, him half-crouching with my forearm at his neck and claws dangerously close to the side of his head.

He shook, looking at me with utter fear and shock as I said lightly and monotonously,

"Is this enough ID?" He shook as he nodded his head quickly, then streached an arm over to the button panel and pressed a giant, blue H on the top of the panel. I nodded and said, "Good. Now, I'm going to weld you into this elevator after I get out, but help will come soon, understand?" An air of confusion passed through his gaze as, slowly, he nodded.

"Good, now-" I was cut off as, suddenly, an alarm rang out through the entire building, a siren blaring as a disenbodied voice announced,

"Warning, there is a break in. All armed personel to the Hypothalimus Gland immediatly."

"Spit! Thrax!"I cursed, just as the elevator jolted and opened. I pushed off the man and ran out of the elevator, waiting for the doors to quickly close before bringing my hand down on the seam, sucessfully welding it shut. I then turned, looking down the halls as sounds of multiple footsteps rang out, followed by the shouts of men.

I grit my teeth, trying to fingure out which way to go in this labrynth of hallways that I stood on the edge of, the voices quickly approaching.

"He's already been to the Hypothalimus, so where would he go next?"I whispered to myself, eyes searching for anywhere, anywhere at all that he could have-

"Hey, Sarge! What's that red stuff on the door to the Subconcious?"I heard a voice call from around the corner, and I instantly took off, running silently across the floor until I slid to a hault just before I rounded the corner, taking a peek around to see two cops looking down a short stairwell, the Sargent of the two shrugging and walking towards me, still looking back at his buddy as I ducked back to the other side, waiting and lighting my left-hand nails.

"Nothin' down there but bad dreams."He called back, his shoulder coming around the corner before the rest of him. I moved quickly, just like Thrax taught me, grabbing the shoulder roughly and slamming the man against the wall, my right hand slamming over his throat and the left-hand holding the glowing orange nails close to his face, my arms too strong for him to wiggle free.

"Where's that door lead out?"I demanded quietly, the man stuttering as he eyes the claws near his face,

"O-o-over there, fourth door on the right!"He squeaked, and I nodded, then grabbed his collar and unlit my nails, taking my left hand and smashing his head back against the wall behind him with a loud 'crack!'. His eyes lolled back and he groaned, sliding down the wall and to the floor. He wasn't dead, just gonna wake up with one hell of a membrane ache. I turned on a dime and ran, jacket billowing out behind me as I headed towards where the man had pointed.

I slid to a stop in front of a small stairwell, just four short steps into a tiny space with a door labeled 'Subconcious Exit'. I breathed a sigh of relief, slowly walking down the steps and sliding to the side, leaning against the corner farthest from the door on the left, just watching.

My nucleus beat excitedly, eager to see, to hear, to talk to Thrax despite everything. Even through my most traumatic, self-analyzing night of my life, I missed the hell out of him. So I waited, watching the door as frantic officers passed by, me unseen by their prying and urgent eyes. Suddenly, once the footsteps had left, the door was slammed open with a start, Thrax jumping out and slamming the door shut behind him and looking almost comically frazzled.

He panted, gathering himself as he opened the side of his jacket and saying,

"Whooo, this cat was sick before I even got here." I felt an overwhelming relief fill me at hearing his smooth, rhythmic voice, seeing him again after the longest solo hiatus I'd ever taken.

"I could have told you that."I said calmly, his face lighting up in surprise as his head snapped in my direction, me standing straight and walking a step towards him, smiling. A smile of his own split Thrax's face, his arms out wide as he swooped down and exclaimed,

"Ann baby! Girl, I was gettin' worried about you." I smiled as he quickly hugged me tight, me wrapping my arms around his neck and closing my eyes for a second... I was waiting for something that never came. That something that would completely erase Jones from my mind, from my memory and, more importantly, from my nucleus. But no, it was still there like a permenant virus. That...that doubt. Those words he'd said to me were still there, still crawling at the back of my neck...

Thrax stood back, holding me at arms length and asking seriously,

"You hurt? That explosion messed me up for awhile, want to make sure my little girl's okay before bookin' it outta here and watching the show from the outside." It was like having two sides warring with eachother inside my chest, and neither side was gaining anymore ground than the other. So, until I sorted it out, I just did what I was used to.

"I'm fine...my temp was low for a bit, but it's all good now."I said quietly, Thrax smirking and raising his eyebrows, running a hand through my hair, a frown suddenly replacing the smile.

"Yo, your hair's all in your pretty face Ann girl. Hold up."He muttered, reaching both hands back as the chain rattled in his pocket. The chain that now held one of Frank's DNA beads... I tried to shove that down as far as possible as Thrax took one of the dreads and tied it around the others, pulling the hair back into a makeshift ponytail with a slight tug.

He smirked and then took my face in his hands, cooing,

"Now that's better. C'mon, this egg's cooked." I nodded, taking his right hand as we ran up the steps and into the hall, looking around before he pulled me to the right and down the hall, footsteps ringing out as we rounded the corner. I froze for just a second, seeing a woman ordering officers down the hall, their backs already turned to us as they ran.

I knew the plan before Thrax even moved, knowing how he thought and how perfect of an opportunity this was to ensure a safe trip to the uvula. He moved forward, me by his side and letting go of his hand just as the woman turned, her eyes catching us and gasping in fear. I felt the victory radiate off of Thrax, doing little to dull my nerves as I frowned at the woman in the tight, short purple dress with large bangs in her eyes, a white-blood cell.

"Hey Baby!"Thrax said enthusiastically, flashing her a toothy grin as she screamed. He reached forward and took her shoulder, pulling her roughly around so she was facing the cops, Thrax holding her to him with his claw at her neck, lit up and giving a soft orange reflection to her jaw.

"What are you waiting for!?"She shouted at the cops, "Shoot him!" I stepped in front of Thrax out of pure instinct, glaring daggers at the cops who had their guns half-pulled, Thrax shouting from behind me,

"You follow me and she dies!" I spun, following him as he picked the woman up with one arm around her waist, throwing the claw across the windows and tearing the thin material they were made of. He jumped first, me following soon after as the woman screamed and the air outside began to grow steadily warmer, almost more comftorble to my skin.

Below me, Thrax turned around mid-air and held his claw-arm out to me, letting me reach down and quickly pull myself to his waist. I looked at the woman, who looked like she was about to faint in fear, and shouted,

"You might want to hold on." She gave me a surprised look before, quickly, wrapping her arms around Thrax. He moved, opening his trench coat and using it as bat-like wings, swooping around and down as we aimed at the busy highway. I looked on, seeing a particular blue car that we were going to touch down right in front of. I unlatched myself from Thrax and landed almost cat-like on the highway, reaching out my left-hand nails and ripping through the car's membrane as the man behind the wheel screamed, the car stopping instantly as I took the driver's throat in my hand and threw him out, sending him careening down towards the cops.

I didn't look down to see if he'd hit them, Thrax instantly blocking my view as he threw the woman in the open window. I reached for the door to the driver's seat, but Thrax placed a hand on my shoulder and made me face him. He held up his claw and shook his head,

"Uh uh uh, no way. Not after last time, Ann girl. Get in the back, keep our hostage company. And buckle up, this is gonna ride's gonna be buuumpy."He sang, me nodding as I distinctively remembered the last time Thrax had tried to teach me to drive. I turned and jumped through the open window, Thrax climbing in as the woman glared daggers at me.

She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and I was well accostomed to Thrax's idea of driving. I reached forward and she exclaimed,

"Hey, get off-!" I reached around her and grabbed the seatbelt, shoving her into her seat and buckling it. She silenced immediatly, looking over both hostile and confused as I sat next to her, pulling on my own seatbelt.

"You'll need that."I said simply, as Thrax slammed his claw-hand into the dashboard, twitching slightly as the red veins of fire quickly spread, a reaction occuring throughout the body of the car as it shifted into something Thrax's style, the interior becoming red and black, the body of it bouncing as it morphed into a sleek, red vehicle with a razor-sharp tip on the front, from what I could see.

"Hold on tight, ladies!"He called back, and slammed the pedal to the floor, the police cars that had pulled up in front of us getting nothing less than slammed out of the way as we rocketed down the highway. The woman sat next to me, looking over and glaring.

"Who are you, his sidekick or something?"She mummbled quietly, Thrax unable to hear over the blast of the radio blaring out something. I looked up at the back of his head with a frown, shaking my head and saying,

"I'm his little sister." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her look from me, to Thrax, and back to me with an incredolous look.

"Seriously? You and that viral-lookin' mother?"She asked, and I straightened up a bit. Not out of insult, but from what she said. Hadn't...hadn't Osmosis called Thrax that?...

I don't know why I thought about it, didn't know why the idea even came to mind. But it was the only way that I could tell him...only way I could set things right, if even it did less than that. I had to try, because...because I couldn't just leave him like I did.

"You know Osmosis Jones?"I asked quietly, so that there was no way Thrax could hear as we veered left and right. The woman gave me a suspicious look, frowning and glaring as she asked,

"Yeah, what's it to you?" I paused, looking down at my lap and frowning. This was a pathetic attempt..but it was still an attempt.

"If you ever get the chance to talk to him again...tell him I'm sorry."I said so quietly that I wasn't sure she heard me, until she took a pause and asked,

"..Who-" She was cut off by her own scream as the car swung violently around, throwing me against the door as Thrax reached back, me undoing the woman's seatbelt just as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, turning and jumping out of the car. I undid my own seatbelt, Thrax opening the door for me and pulling me lightly out by my arm.

"You hurt?"He asked quickly as we ran into a building with giant letters labeled Uvula, the throat down below us and the tongue somewhere up above us.

"No."I said quickly, entering the building as we instantly found an empty reception area, the elevator against the far wall.

"Hey, let me go right now! I swear, when I get my hands on you-"

"Oh, shut up!"Thrax snapped at her, me barely getting in the elevator in time, stopping for the first time with my cytoplasm pumping and nucleus pounding in my ears, adrenaline racing through me. This was the last streach, the run to get out as we watched the entire city burn from the outside...

I couldn't count how many times I'd done this. I couldn't explain how much more stressful each one was, or how terrible I felt as I watched each person die. I felt like part of me died with them, and thinking of how many people we'd killed, I was surprised that I was still whole...and to be honest, I'd never thought about it like this before. Never imagined how it could hurt me, so much as it benifitted Thrax.

And I knew exactly the cause of my new thinking. Of the war being fought inside of me. Of the pain, the conflict, and the betrayal I felt, looking up at Thrax as the woman struggled and shouted, Thrax doing nothing but smiling calmly and toying with the chain on his claw. There was an air of confidence about him that, just yesterday, I'd be proud to say I helped put there. Now? Now...I was wishing I'd never met Osmosis Jones, and at the same time feeling lucky I had.

The elevator let out a soft 'ting' as we reached the top, the woman still struggling as the doors opened...

Something was off. Something...something wasn't right here. There was a fog, thicker than any mist I'd ever seen, a thick and sticky red color that fumed and shifted througout the room as Thrax and I stepped out, the elevator doors closing behind us.

"Yo hold up..."Thrax muttered, confused as I looked around, squinting, breathing in... Cherry. The fog was cherry scented... My eyes widened as I instantly recognized the scent, looking around and seeing nothing but the thick, cherry fog, the smell making me almost gag. My nucleus pounded now for a compltetely different reason. I knew he was here, knew they were both here.

And hadn't I warned them not to come? Hadn't I told Osmosis not to follow us? What more could I possibly do to keep these two out of harm's way! It was almost as if they wanted to risk their lives-...

They wanted to. That's why they kept pursuing us, not matter what? Was that really it? They wanted to risk their lives, if it meant saving Frank from us...and I'd never met anyone willing to die for a cause. Never in my years had I ever met one germ, cell, mitochondira, molecule...nothing, nothing that would risk their lives to save something.

These two were just a bundle of surprises, weren't they? They'd just made it that much harder to fight them. Could I really get rid of two people so unique, so selfless, so dedicated...so special? Thrax's voice cut through my thoughts, the woman still shouting and struggling.

"What is that nasty smell?"He asked, confused as he walked a bit forward, me on full-alert next to him.

"Cherry. Wild Cherry." The voice was too familiar to not know, and I froze the second I looked forward and saw his outline through the smog, the mist slowly parting where he was to reveal more of him. His gun-hand pointed to us, face serious and eyes resting on me for just a second before he focused on Thrax, who remained cool and calm, the oppisite of how I felt at the moment.

"Now let her go!"Drix demanded, the woman struggling harder as Thrax set her down, before getting a wicked grin and yanking her by her arm back to him, holding his claw up near her.

"Why? So you can _ice _ me again?"He mocked, leaning down more as the woman grunted. I paused a second too late, realizing with a start that we were missing someone in this picture. Someone whose voice instantly broke through below us, coming straight out of the ground.

"No, so I can!"Osmosis shouted, throwing himself out from the floor that's membrane he was able to pass through, jumping up and grabbing Thrax's claw-arm. I reacted out of that damned instinct, throwing and arm out and side-swiping him away, him grunting in pain as he somehow managed to tear the woman from Thrax's grasp. Both landed in front of us, skidding away as Thrax glared and growled above me.

"Virus Condius!"Drix exclaimed, and before I could react a shot of ice flew right over my head, Thrax letting out a grunt of pain that shot a sense of fear right into my heart. Fighting. We were really fighting, but whose side could I chose? It used to be so easy! Thrax won, even now as I rushed to him, him holding his claw hand that was entirely iced over, but...but why did part of me want Osmosis and Drix to win? Why did I want to help them and not hurt Thrax?

Why did I want things I could never have?...

He grunted in pain again, and I placed my hands on his arm.

"Thrax!"I exclaimed, as he grabbed my hand and instantly retreated, pulling us deeper into the fog so that the others couldn't see us. We moved quickly, Thrax gritting his teeth through the horrible cold on his claw, me trying to think of a way to remove the ice while also trying to keep a distance from the others.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"Osmosis's voice sang, and I grit my teeth.

"I ain't got time for this."Thrax growled angrily, just as we backed into a membrane window. I moved instantly, knowing his train of thought as he slashed the still-iced claw clean through the paper-thin material, the window tearing completely and the red smog instantly suctioning out like a vaccume, all of it gone in just a matter of seconds. I felt my lungs greedily breathe in the air as Thrax and I relished in at least a moment of victory, before a light suddenly assualted us, blinding me for a moment as Thrax instantly pulled me to him, shielding my eyes as I looked up and clung to his jacket.

Above us, a helicopter sputtered, the propellor noisily splicing the air and a fat man calling down on a mic,

"This is Frank PD, we have you surrounded. Surrender at once!" I glared up at them, Thrax growling in his chest.

"Give it up, Ann."Osmosis said, and I turned my head, surprised that he'd actually single me out, no Thrax, no nothing. Just me... I looked into his eyes, and I saw how hopeful he was. Saw how much he just wanted me to give up, to surrender myself. Drix pointed his gun-hand at Thrax, not looking at me, but I sensed his own desperation...

Really, after all I'd done to them...they still wanted me to surrender? I gave Osmosis a look, breathing coming hard as I thought about how...how special these two were. The first two to ever show me this kind of friendship, and I was doing this to them? Maybe they really were better off without me...

"Hand over the bracelette!"Drix exclaimed, and Thrax laughed, removing his arm from around me as I stepped partially back, looking up to see him reaching into his jacket, a big smile on his face as he exclaimed, still full of confidence,

"Y'all are makin' this too easy!" He laughed again, pulling out the pollen pods we'd collected and turning, chucking them. "Watch this!"He exclaimed, the pods jumping to life as the little spores flew into the helicopter propeller, instantly ricocheting off and down the throat.

"Oh no!"Osmosis shouted as an air began sucking in, right before the sneeze out.

"Grab on! We're out!"Thrax exclaimed, and there was...there was this moment. This moment where...I almost didn't. This strange, new moment where I almost stayed. I almost didn't leave, just a few strands of courage away from walking away from Thrax. From walking to Osmosis and Drix. A moment of hesitation.

That only lasted a moment.

In the next, I was holding onto Thrax, looking back at Osmosis with an apologetic, still-torn face. Thrax opened his coat and jumped up, exclaiming in a victorious voice,

"Enjoy the funeral, boys!"

Drix and Osmosis looked after me. Not Thrax, not the helicopters, not ducking for the sneeze. In the moment before Thrax turned and angled us out of the mouth, to ride the air of the sneeze, all three of us locked eyes. This was it, wasn't it? This was what I'd vied for, this was why I left them. This was Thrax's dream. Even if it meant that leaving these two to die ripped my nucleus out of my chest, even if I felt like crying, it was his dream. This was his victory...

So why was it my failure?


	9. Start Over Again

_-This will be the final installment of 'Infection', and to all those who read, followed, commented, or just plain enjoyed, I love you all equally and I thank you so much for all of your support. The sequel will be titled 'Infection: Antidote' and should be posted soon, tying up all of the loose ends. So please sit back and enjoy!-_

_ ~Ann~_

We'd just cleared the mouth, and outside the scene of a hospital emergency played out. Frank behind us, but in front of us what looked like an innocent, young girl, her eyes wide and watery, a broken and terrified look on her face. I hated when close relatives were watching their loved ones die, it just made it that much harder to cope with. And with all that I'd just been through, I didn't need another thing weighing on my concience.

"Goodjob, Ann gi-" Thrax was suddenly cut off, lurching forward as something slammed into us and sent us spiralling forward. I gasped, suddenly aware of whatever hitting us seperating me and Thrax, hitting me hard on the left side as the young girl's right eye came up fast. I curled up and closed my eyes as I was sent rocketing towards it, not prepared for the sudden splash of liquid, holding my breath as I jolted upon impact with the watery surface.

Dots filled my vision as I felt myself lose conciousness for just a moment, eyes closing and body floating towards the surface of the eye, limp. A series of images flashed across my eyes as I floated, the watery liquid slowly guiding me to its surface, mind in a sort of haze. An image of Thrax, when I was younger. When we first started this whole thing, when I still thought that guilt was something you outgrew when you got older. An image of Osmosis disguised as a cell. Of him, Drix, and me all dancing to James Brown.

Of a time, for just one day, that I felt like maybe...maybe I really could start over...

A hand pulled me back to conciousness, followed by two arms pulling me from the water. I slowly coughed and looked up, seeing Thrax already letting go of me, both of us now standing on the surface of the water through its surface tension. I shook, the liquid falling off me as I looked to where Thrax was already moving.

Osmosis. Of couse, who else would do something so stupid? He was slowly staggering to the surface, coughing and making surprised exclimations as he slowly gained his bearings. I tensed, seeing Thrax walking slowly towards him with a look of pure anger, hatred written on his face, a few dreads falling in his face. And I couldn't do anything but stand there and watch, couldn't move, couldn't shout.

I just stood there. Truly torn, in this one moment. Because...yes. I wanted to save Osmosis. I felt somewhere inside of me that this was what I wanted to do. What _I _ wanted...it seemed almost sad that this was a foreign concept to me. Tragic that it was a dangerous option. Horrible that it was a difficult option...

"Ya just don't know when to quit, do ya Jones?"Thrax demanded, then paused, looking down at his still-frozen claw in horror and realization. He couldn't kill Jones with that, and part of me sighed in relief. Though, that part was quickly shut up as Osmosis took quick action, and slugged Thrax right in the jaw. I paused, twitching and wincing as I fought every instinct to go to Thrax's aid...

Thrax, who quickly fought back on his own, lunging and slashing and punching at Osmosis, but failed to get in any hits as Jones quickly and efficiantly used his pliable dynamics to move his face, sliding from one place to the other, ducking, splitting his stomach in two so that Thrax's hand went right through, and so on. I could feel the frustration building in Thrax as he failed and failed and failed again, the few times he actually got in hits being followed by Osmisis instantly getting right back up.

Relentless. Damnit, Osmosis...

He suddenly jumped, spinning upsidedown in the air and, in a slow-motion moment that seemed to take an eternity, my eyes widening as Thrax slowly swung his hand around. Time moved faster again, just as the ice over Thrax's claw hand shattered and freed him. Where relief was supposed to be, a fear twisted inside of me.

Thrax paused for just a second, Osmosis rolling away and coughing, shaking his head from the impact. Thrax slowly raised his claw hand, the chain hanging from it. My eyes widened, our minds to intertwined to not know what he was thinking, taking in a quick, sudden breath, unable to do much but just stand there and watch as an evil glint shone in Thrax's eyes.

"You know Jones,"He drawled, walking up to Osmosis and snapping the chain, one end in both hands as he walked behind a still-groggy looking Osmosis, "You want this chain so bad? Big daddy Thrax is gonna let you have it." He grinned evilly as he quickly drew the chain around Jones's neck, twisting and pulling upward harshly and suddenly.

I cringed, stifling a gasp as Osmosis began to choke, eyes bulging and clawing at the chain, a horrible chill running down my spine. My eyes were wide, taking in the entire scene, my cytoplasm running cold as I clenched my fists and...and...and watched my older brother choke someone who I wanted to be my best friend...

Maybe my life was meant to boil down to a point like this. I mean, did I honestly expect that, in all the bodies we were going to visit, I wouldn't find at least one person who was special enough, kind enough, and different enough to make me want to be their friend? I was a virus. He was an Immunity cell. But, then again, I was a virus that didn't want to kill, and he was an Immunity cell who got killed almost on a daily basis.

We were messed up. We were the underdogs. He was kind, idiotic, and the best damn cop I'd ever met. And I...

_'You can start all over again!'_

...I wanted to do something right for once in my life.

"Looks good on ya Jones! Ya wear it well!"Thrax exclaimed, standing up and increasing the choke on Jones. I moved forward quickly, ready to do something, anything... When the girl decided to blink. I paused, horrified as I saw the upperlid begin to come down upon us, thinking fast as Thrax exclaimed, oblivious, "Too bad you had to come this far from home, just to die-Argh!" He turned and shouted, holding Joned out in front of him as a shield as the lid slowly shut, the water whelling up and, watching as I jumped up and barely grabbed an upper-lid lash, Jones rolled down to the lashes on the lower lid.

He rolled to a stop, coughing on his hands and knees as, while Thrax approached him from behind, he realized that the chain was still around his neck. I watched, waiting, wondering if I were really about to do this. Wondering what happened to the girl who started this whole mess, just yesterday. Could she really have dissapeared in just 48 short hours?...

Or did she just change? Either way, I felt that if she hadn't, if she'd never met Osmosis Jones, than that guilt she felt would have killed her faster than any virus she ever came up against. Thrax was now past my line of fall, and so I let go of the lash, plummeting what felt like hundreds of feet and yet still landing cat-like, on my feet and crouching.

"Haha, who's the germinator now-woah!"Osmosis exclaimed as I suddenly lost my balance, falling forward a bit and having to stand up to catch myself.

"The Frank?"I whispered, looking down to see the lashes actually falling. It didn't take a genius to figure it out, just a girl with a sense of femininity, to realize what we were standing on.

It was a falsie. This girl wasn't older than twelve, what's she doing wearing a falsie?! I heard the glue snap behind me, my nucleus stopping for a second as I looked forward, seeing Thrax now right behind an unsuspecting Jones, the lashes below us slowly slipping. My mind churned, waiting for the perfect opportunity, moving forward slowly and watching.

Thrax suddenly lunged forward, throwing his claw into the lash as he tried to hit Jones. I saw what Thrax didn't, Jones splitting his chest so that there was a hole in the center that Thrax's claw went through, lodging it into the lash.

"Can you feel the heat, Jones?"Thrax cooed darkly, tilting his head down from where I could see, "Too bad you wont be here to see me break my record, when I take down Frank's pretty, little, girl!" And there, in that moment, with those words...I finally spoke. Not as Thrax's sister. Not as the Red Death virus.

I spoke as Ann.

"She's not going down, Thrax."

Silence. That was what followed, Osmosis looking up at me with a surprised look on his face, but what I was really focused one was Thrax, how his back tensed, how he remained silent for a few beats. Slowly, he turned his head, looking back at me with a face mixed with fury and confusion, a horrible tremor running through my spine. Wanting nothing more than to just turn and run. To take it all back. To go back.

But there was not going back. Not after I'd made this choice.

"What did you just say?"He asked in a measured tone, a tone I'd never been on the brunt end of before, still sticking to my place. I slowly shook my head, Jones moving slowly and carefully, splitting bit by bit up his chest and sliding around Thrax's unsuspecting claw.

"...Thrax, I can't...I can't let you do this. This man...after the explosion, he took care of me...and...I just can't let you hurt anyone anymore."I tried, mind lurching to find the right words to say. I saw shock cross Thrax's features, something darker, something almost painful hidden in the pools of yellow.

"What the hell's gotten into you, huh? We're so close to our dream, and you're askin' me to let an Immunity cop just go free?! If this is a joke, and I sure hope it is, it ain't funny."He growled, eyes narrowing at me. In all of my years, I'd never seen Thrax actually...angry at me, before. And I'd expected it to be terrifying. Expected it to rip my nucleus apart...

And it was. It was and so much more, it was wrong, it was confusing, it was like stepping into an uncertain world where I didn't know the outcome. But wasn't I doing just that? Wasn't my path one I'd never dared walk down? And so, as Osmosis was slowly sliding his face in half, I gulped down the lump in my throat and squared my shoulders.

"No, Thrax."I said quietly, and a look of surprise crossed his face, "It...this isn't _our _ dream. All these people, all these deaths...I never wanted any of it. I hated it, all of it, seeing all of those innocent people die...and I can't do it anymore. I wont."

"Where the hell is this all comin' from?! What did you do to her, Jones-"Thrax cut himself off, looking down wide-eyed to see that Osmosis was no longer under him, but that his claw was stuck firmly in the falsie. Osmosis ran rather awkwardly over to me, his body split in half from his chest to his head, both sides flopping around as strands of white-blood cell shot from one half to the other, slowly sewing him back up.

By the time he got to me, he was in one piece. He stopped at me, crouching and panting from the exertion, the chain still in his hand. I fell to my knees next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder to make sure he was okay. Slowly, he raised his head to me, our eyes connecting closely, and something new stirring in my chest. Something wonderful.

"Ann...what are you doin'? I thought-"

"Osmosis."I said sadly, hopefully, looking him seriously in the eye, "Did you mean it, when you said that I could start over?"

He paused a second, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, Ann girl. I did."He said, and there was so much truth behind it that, no matter what, there was no turning back.

"Oh, I get it."Thrax's bitter, angry voice pulled me to him again, seeing him with one hand on his claw-arm, hunched over and a few dreads in his face, teeth barred and gritted, glaring over at me with a look of pure, smoldering hatred.

"I take care of you. I raise you. We spent seventeen years together, seventeen years of me protecting you! What happened to all that talk of bein' a team, huh?! I guess that all of that, all of everything I ever did for you, can just dissapear when one white-blood cell decides he wants you to turn sides!"Thrax spat, and I moved forward, feeling the falsie slowly dip again.

"No Thrax!"I shouted, a pain in my chest and a sadness in my voice, "That's not it! Don't you get it? I _always _ felt this way! This ain't anything new, Thrax... The only reason I ever put up with all that guilt was for you. Because seeing you happy...that was all I ever wanted. That's why I spent those seventeen years fighting down all the pain I had from killing all those innocent people, germs, and cells. It was all for you, because I wanted you to achieve your goal, I wanted my big brother to be happy."My voice got quieter at the end, moving closer as I spoke.

The falsie suddenly lurched down, Osmosis shouting from behind me,

"Ann! We gotta go!"

I reached out my hand to Thrax, streaching it. This was it. My last chance to maintain some sort of normalty in the life I was about to throw myself into. I gave him a pleading look, bangs falling in my face as Thrax looked at me with a mixture of anger, shock, and confliction. He looked from my hand to my face, and I shouted over the sound of buzzing machines and snapping glue,

"Thrax, I love you. Please, take my hand and...and let's just be a normal family."

A dark look crossed his eyes, narrowing them in contempt that he shot right at me.

"..You want a normal family? Go be one with him!"Thrax shouted...and then did something he'd never done before. Something I'd never even considered him doing before... He hit me.

Right across the face, with the hand that wasn't stuck in the falsie, a pain exploding across the side of my face as I was thrown back, grunting in shock as I rolled and slid. If I were looking back, maybe I'd have seen the shocked, guilty look on Thrax's face. Maybe I'd have seen the pain in his own eyes. Maybe. But that's not what happened.

Instead, all I could focus on was falling. Falling, and that horrible pain in my chest. Not a physical pain, but...but a horrible, tearing apart of my nucleus. Of everything I'd ever envisioned my life to be. Of my image of Thrax and me, of Thrax caring about me, of him being my big brother. I'd always thought that, when it boiled down to it, he put me as his little sister first, just like I put him above everything in my life...

But if that had ever been the case, would we have ever gotten in this situation in the first place? If he put me first, would he have led me down this path?...It's a terrible realization, when you finally understand that you were just a pawn in someone's game. Just a tool for them to use. Like a slightly better croonie. I couldn't believe that, after everything we'd been through, that he'd actually do something like this. Yes, a terrible realization.

A realization that, for the first time, gave me a whole new feeling about Thrax. Not pain. Not sadness. Maybe a bit of betrayal. Not longing.

Anger.

"Ann!"Osmosis broke me from my stupor, realizing I was slipping off the side of the falsie, gasping and reaching out a hand that, in a second, he took in his. Tightly, he pulled me up and pressed me to him, pulling me into a hug that was so tight, so warm, and so sorry. I wanted to stay here forever...but I couldn't.

I moved and took his hand, grabbing the chain and sprinting upwards, just as the lash began to crack, break, and fall.

"We're not gonna make it!"Osmosis shouted, but I wasn't giving up. Not now. Not ever.

"Hold on!"I shouted, grasping his hand tight as the last of the glue snapped and gave way, the surface under our feet falling away as, in a moment of sudden strength, I pushed off of the lash and made the impossible leap.

It seemed to go on forever, that one jump. Across a span of just space, seeing a single strand of glue, reaching out my hand, Osmosis clutching mine next to me, streaching...streaching...streaching...

"Got it!"I shouted, grasping the glue in one hand as Osmosis grabbed his own next to me. I quickly looked down, seeing the falsie fall down, Thrax's scream soon becoming unheareable. It slowly fell and, suddenly, smacked off the edge of the medical tray near the end of Frank's bed, falling onto a passing medical tray being carted by a nurse. It lay there, my eyes watching as the nurse carted it away, soon just turning a corner, gone.

And I had to fight the lump in my throat because, despite everything, some part of me still broke, knowing that I might never get to see him, Thrax, my big brother...ever again. Osmosis must have seen this, because the next thing he said, in a soft voice, was,

"Hey, Ann girl...you did the right thing." I paused for a moment, and then actually felt a small, bittersweet smile spread onto my face.

"I sure damn hope so, Osmosis."I whispered, looking down at Frank. The machine was making a solitary, stationairy beep, one I'd heard multiple times. And then another, more troubling thought hit me...I could start over...but it would take some time. It would take some time for the people, the humans, the bodies, to be able to stand me.

But, hell. I was a virus. I had all the time in the world, so long as I got to be with Osmosis and Drix eventually. And suddenly the sad thought wasn't so sad. It was almost...an adventure, before the adventure. But in order for those adventures to begin, we had to get our sorry behinds back into Frank!

"Yo yo yo, what's goin' on?!"Osmosis exclaimed, my nucleus stopping as the little girl suddenly got ushered away by doctors and nurses, away from her father. No, no this wasn't good! Not after everything we'd been through, we couldn't just be defeated like this!

"Damnit! Bring her back!"I shouted, the chain rattling in my hand, the chain they needed to save Frank.

"Ann, what's the new plan?"Osmosis asked panicked, and I just looked broken over at there the man was slowly fading away. I thought and thought, but nothing came to mind, nothing... I grit my teeth, shouting as if the girl could hear me,

"Go back! C'mon, we've got too many people counting on us!"

And, suddenly...it worked. The beep became solitary, a flatliner, and suddenly the girl started sprinting across the floor. I gasped, feeling my heart jump as I suddenly began to cheer,

"Yeah girl! That's right, run back!" She arrived quickly, Frank's open mouth right below us, but with no way to fall in and not break every fiber in my body...wait...this girl's dad was dying, that meant that...

"Tear!"I shouted, looking up just as one big, fat tear rolled off the end of an eyelash. Osmosis and I shared a look for just a second, before a smile broke on his face.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"He asked, and I responded by shouting,

"JUMP!" I let go, flying downwards and suddenly wishing Thrax had taught me that whole jacket-parachute thing, doing nothing but letting myself fall and hope that I landed in the tear. I felt two arms wrap around me, and I looked up to see Osmosis smiling down at me confidently. I couldn't help it, I smiled back, burying my face in his chest as he held me to him, feeling us breach the surface of the tear and just float there, as if suspended in a space.

My breath began to run low, my face still stinging from the hit I took, chest convulsing as, at the last minute, I felt the impact. It was stifled by Jones, landing on his chest hard as the tear splashed and broke around us, leaving both of us in a puddle and soaking wet. I took in a breath of air, only to cough and wheeze, rolling off Osmosis and squinting, eyes closed as the voices above us shouted.

"Hey! It's her, quick, shoot!"I heard the woman shout, followed by Osmosis quickly saying,

"Yo yo, she's cool! She's on our side now..."He coughed, laying his head back as I slowly splayed my right arm out, feeling the chain rattle in my hand. The chain I never, ever, wanted to see again, let alone feel the pulse of those I'd helped kill.

"Quick, get that thing to the Hypothalimus Gland, now!"A gruff voice shouted out, the chain being quickly removed from my hand, forever.

"Hey, Drix."I coughed out, opening my eyes slowly and looking up, seeing the large pill floating above me with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes?"He asked, and I smiled up at him.

"Think I can get any more of that soup?"I asked, and loe and behold, a smile cracked onto his own face.

"Yo, Ann girl,"Osmosis coughed out, and I turned to him, only to get flicked on the end of my nose. I scrunched up my face in irritation and snapped out,

"What was that for!?"

"For that punch you gave me in the Zit! Always wanted to repay you."He laughed, giving me that charming, happy-go-lucky smile of his that I couldn't help but laugh at. And suddenly, I was glad that I hadn't killed him. Not just that...

I was glad I came back, even if it wasn't for very long.

_-The Next Day-_

The crowd was roaring, people were snapping picture after picture, Drix was doing ridiculous poses, Leah(the woman, whose name I learned from Osmosis play-flirting with her, only to get turned down) smiling and crossing her arms as Osmosis did his own poses, the Chief congradulating us, and me...

Well, I was standing stiff as a board and wishing that I had better people skills. I literally wanted to crawl into a hole and hide until this whole thing was over, not actually good at having a massive, and I mean massive, crowd of people all looking at me.

"Yo, Ann girl, loosen up!"Osmosis exclaimed, elbowing me. I shot him a look and muttered,

"I'm not exactly good in crowds, Osmosis."He flashed me a wink and elbowed me again, saying,

"Hey, it's Ozzy, remember?" I smiled back at him. Yes, it was Ozzy. And it always would be.

"Hey, kids!"The Chief exclaimed, a rather...um...rotund man with a bushy mustache, a white-blood cell just like Ozzy, and I turned to him curiously. He beamed at me and placed his hands on his hips, asking happily,

"You know, you're a deadly virus that almost destroyed this entire city."

"Really? I missed that memo."I deadpanned, Ozzy grunting behind me and mummbling,

"Not a good idea, Chief's not good a humor-" But just as he said that, the Chief threw back his head and bellowed, giving me a too-rough slap on the shoulder and making me jump a bit, Ozzy giving him an incredolous look and exclaiming,

"You laugh when it's her jokes, but not mine?!" The Chief gave him a wise smile and said gruffly,

"I _like _ her." Ozzy gaped, and I surpressed my own fit of giggles as the Chief continued, "And that's why I'm giving her a job in Immunity, partnering with you and your pill friend over there." I paused, gaping myself this time. Ozzy straightened up immediatly and began cheering, me still in disbelief that this man was kind enough to offer me a job after what I'd just done...

A job protecting, instead of killing?...

"You hear that Drix? Ann's our new partner! Don't worry kiddo, we'll show you the ropes, and maybe I'll be able to give you a little bit of my expertise."Ozzy said, popping out his jacket collar and smirking.

"Please, Jones,"The Chief said tiredly, "The only reason I'm partnering her with you is because no one seems better at getting you out of trouble! Besides, who knows the criminal mind better than a former one herself? Yep, little lady, I think you'll make an excellent addition to the Immunity team!" I smiled up at him, something warming up inside of me at how generous, how special this man was.

Maybe more people were like this, I just never got the chance to see it. If that were the case, that made this all that much harder.

"Thank you, Chief...but I can't accept."I said, his face turning to one of surprise as Ozzy's hand turned me around, his own face surprised, as well as Drix and Leah's.

"But Ann, this is your chance! Start all over, remember? Start doin' some good!"Ozzy pleaded, but I just smiled at him and placed a hand on his shoulder, having to reach up. He gave me a cute, crestfallen, puppy-dog face, and I just smiled softly.

"I know, but I can't do any good right now, can I? Frank's still incredibly succeptible to me! One little tear in any tissue and he could end up back in the hospital."I explained, seeing their faces only fall more. And it was so, incredibly amazing, that I finally found a group that actually cared about if I stayed or left, about me. And it was also incredibly sad that I had to leave them for however long I did.

"Hey..."Leah said, uttering the first word to me since our car-ride conversation. I raised an eyebrow as she offered me a conservative, tentative look, nervously scratching the back of her neck.

"Yeah?"I asked, and she cleared her throat.

"Um, yeah, well...listen, maybe you're not so bad. And I...uh..."I could tell she was struggling for words, so I decided to help her out by just smiling and saying,

"Thank you." She paused a second, then nodded quickly and straighted out, gathering herself again as Ozzy whined,

"But Ann girl, I just got you back!" I laughed, jumping up onto the podium near us, ready to jump to the roof of Cerebellum Hall and made a secret exit out of the mouth, a pollen pod hidden in my jacket. I crouched down, Ozzy now shorter than me, and placed my right hand on his cheek, smiling down at the cute man that completely changed my life.

That helped me start over again.

"Hey, once the humans make an antidote, I'll be right back here, got it?"I smiled as I said this, then leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, surprisingly warm, before leaning back and seeing his surprised, slightly hopeful face. I straightened up, smiling down at Drix and winking.

"Seeya around, Drips."I teased, before jumping up and landing easily on the roof, hearing him call back,

"It's Drix! With and X!"

"Whatever!"I shouted over my shoulder, jumping over the peak of the roof and out of the public's view. And as I made my way up, ready to leave Frank behind for the time being, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to start over again, that I really could start doing some good on Immunity. That I could reverse the path I'd been set on against my will, to change my future with the help of a white blood cell and a pill...

Hey, if a virus can want to heal people, anything's possible, right?


End file.
